Tuesday 18 June 2019

No Anti-Semitism in Sight

To the Jew First, Then Also to the Greek

Amongst the Founders of the US Republic, the Jewish people were held in very high regard and respect in general.  This position was consistent with the extremely high respect maintained for God Himself. 

John Adams serves as a prime example:

Adams held the Jewish people and their religion in the highest esteem.  Such an appreciation for Judaism--and the contribution of Jews to the making of a better world--is most evident in his private letters sent to close friends.  In the whole of his political writings, Adams drew heavily on Greek and Roman political experience but did not ignore the patrimony of the Hebrews.   He wrote in 1809:
"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation.  If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.  If I were an atheists of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization."
  . . . . In a missive dated December 31, 1808, he confessed being appalled by Voltaire's derogatory comments about the Hebrew Bible and the Jewish people.  Adams commented:
"How is it possible this old Fellow [Voltaire} should represent the Hebrews in such contemptible light?  They are the most glorious Nation that ever inhabited this Earth.  The Romans and their Empire were but a Bauble in comparison of [sic] the Jews.  They have given Religion to the quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more, and more happily, than any other Nation ancient or modern."
[Augusto Zimmermann, Christian Foundations of the Common Law: Volume 2: The United States (Brisbane: Connor Court Publishing, 2018), p. 100f.]

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