Jewish Americans and White Supremacy: From Judah P. Benjamin to Ben Shapiro
During the StoptheSteal protests in D.C, it was reported that one of the protesters who breached the Capitol building was Aaorn Mostofsky, the son of Brooklyn Supreme Court judge and Orthodox community leader Shlomo Mostofsky. This was the same event that saw participants wearing “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWNE” shirts and waving the confederate flag.
To understand Aaorn Mostofsky and other Jewish Americans’ participation in white supremacist movements, there calls for a brief reexamination of the history between Jewish Americans and white supremacy.
It was long thought in mainstream Jewish history that the United States provided an “American Jewish Exceptionalism”. Here it was thought that the United States was an exceptional place for the Jewish people because of relative ease they had becoming full citizens. During the debates surrounding the Constitution there were little to no debates on Jewish rights — they (white Jews) were to be treated just as well as any other white American. This in turn allowed Jews to have an unprecedented level of political and economic freedom compared to much of the West at the time.
Antisemitism in the United States is portrayed as “nonviolent, nonpolitical, and fleeting.” This narrative is quickly undermined by a deeper read into American history. One finds numerous violent attacks dating back to the nineteenth century. The 1924 immigration act, that virtually closed the country’s borders was justified in part by antisemitic rhetoric that characterized Jews as “filthy”. This measure became extremely telling in the United States’ weak response to growing antisemitism in Nazi Germany, which as we all know lead to disastrous consequences. During the 20s, 30s, and 40s antisemitism grew as an organized force. By the 1930s it was estimated that there were more than 100 antisemitic organizations operating in the United States. Antisemitic tirades were common among national politicians such as Albert Johnson (R) and John Rankin (D).
The House Un-American Activities and other anti-communist, anti-labor organization disproportionally targeted Jews and spread antisemitic conspiracies. In local judications. Jews faced increased workplace and housing discrimination. The perverse antisemitism of this era is most noted in the wave of bombings of southern synagogues in the late 1950s. With the recent wave of antisemitic violence and hate crimes committed in recent years it is clear that antisemitism has been a potent force in United States history, even if it never went as far as genocide.
This brings us to a description of Jewish American history and its relationship with white supremacy. Early Jewish migration during the colonial era largely consisted of Sephardic Jews. Pockets of Ashkenazi Jews began migrating around 1720. By 1800 the largest number of Jews (500 out of 2,500) lived not in New York, but South Carolina. However, like their non-Jewish compatriots, Carolinian Jews enjoyed southern society’s most evil social institution: slavery. It is estimated that in 1830, 83 percent of Jewish Charlestonians held slaves. This is SLIGHTLY SMALLER, but around the same percentage of the non-Jewish white population in Charleston at 87 percent.
When the civil war broke out, Jewish participation was geographically biased. Northern Jews fought for the Union, and the Southern Jews for the Confederacy. Perhaps, the most notorious Jew to take part in the Civil War was US Senator (and almost justice of the Supreme Court) Judah P. Benjamin who, at separate times, was the Confederate States of America Attorney General, Secretary of War, and Secretary of State — the first Jewish cabinet member in United States history.
Benjamin was an outspoken supporter of slavery. During a debate in the US Senate, one Northern senator called Benjamin an “Israelite with Egyptian principles.” After the South’s secession from the United States he quickly transitioned from Louisiana Senator to Attorney General after receiving the nod from Jefferson Davis.
Through his tenure in the cabinet, Benjamin took leading roles in organizing the CSA’s military and the CSA’s diplomacy efforts. In fact, while Jefferson Davis was traveling, Benjamin convened a cabinet meeting and made decisions that belonged exclusive to the president. Thus, no only was Benjamin the first Jewish cabinet member, but technically the first Jewish president in United States history.
By the end of the civil war, as the Confederacy was facing its end, Jefferson Davis went as so far to offer France a plan for the gradual emancipation of enslaved Africans in exchange for support from France. Though rejected, through the Confederacy’s final days, Benjamin was pleading for strategy that involved free enslaved Africans in exchange for military service. On the verge of the Confederacy’s collapse, Benjamin fled the country and lived the rest of his life as a successful lawyer in Britain.
Benjamin’s legacy has gone in several different ways reflecting his diverse career. For confederate sympathizers after the civil war Benjamin was both a scapegoat and was whose name was brought up in conversation to counter critiques of the CSA’s racism. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg lauded Benjamin’s lawyer career in a 2002 lecture to the Loyola School of Law.
It’s important to understand that Northern Jews at large were not quick to support the Union, nor emancipation. For the most part Jews were either supportive of slavery or silent on the matter. It was only when the Union was clearly winning the war when most Northern Jews became pro-Lincoln. The silence can in part be explained by fear of speaking out against slavery may risk the loss of support from governments or communities. After all it was General Grant who issued an order (quickly overturned by President Lincoln) in 1862 that would round up and expel Jews in areas taken by the Union. It was the Confederates who would try to prevent the evictions.
This fear was not too dissimilar from the Jewish community in South Africa during Apartheid, which was careful not to raise objections. However, like Jewish anti-apartheid figures like Ronnie Kasrils, Helen Joseph, Ruth First, and Joe Slovo, America had its share of Jewish abolitionists. Theodore Wiener, Jacob Benjamin, and August Bondi served as part of John Brown’s antislavery fighters. Ernestine Rose, perhaps the most prominent Jewish American abolitionist and feminist in the nineteenth century stood shoulder to shoulder with Frederick Douglass.
This brings us to today as white supremacy has its fair share of Jewish allies today in Ben Shapiro, David Horowitz, Stephen Miller, and most recently Louis Shenker. They face navigating through right wing spaces that are currently caught between philosemitism and antisemitism. The former generally accepts Jewish participation in part to their doomsday inspired Zionism. The latter, the alt-right, happen to be the greatest threat to the Jewish community in the United States. Ben Shapiro was no less a victim to the alt-right’s ascendance. After leaving Breitbart, Shapiro was met with threats, calling him a “kike” and no shortage of Holocaust-inspired death threats.
Thankfully, many American Jews today are out front and active at working to end white supremacy. Bernie Sanders no less has been a political figurehead for the just world to come. Recent years have been a turning point not only for supporting marginalized and oppressed communities in general, but specifically uplifting the voices of Jews of Color. However, the recent debates between Marc Dollinger and Brandeis’ Jonathan Sarna prove that the Jewish community still has a long way to go to understand white supremacy among Jews.
On another note, today most of the Jews aiding the right are generally Orthodox Jews. In fact, while only 13 percent of Reform Jews and 28 percent of Conservative Jews consider themselves right wing, for Orthodox Jews this number jumps to 54 percent. While the Jewish Defense League appears to have all but disappeared, with rise of organized white supremacists there is certainly a worry that right wing Jewish nationalist groups may make a comeback.
I think its important to honor the legacy of those like Ernestine Rose, August Bondi, Jacob Benjamin, and Theodore Wiener who, in the face of indifference to abolition in the Jewish community and the sole Jewish US senator (not counting Davide Yulee who converted to Christianity), Judah Benjamin defending slavery and deriding African slaves, stood up for equality and justice. I think its important for Jewish American activists today to understand that no matter how small they may feel on whatever social justice issue, know that it is in the greater good of the Jewish community and the world to keep pushing.
