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16 2 The First Crisis of American Jewry In 1840,American Jews suddenly realized that their internal divisions and bitter infighting constituted a crippling liability. The catalyst for this realization were events in Damascus in February of that year: As many as a dozen Jews were rounded up and tortured until they confessed to the ritual murder of a Catholic monk, Father Thomas, and his servant, a“crime” for which they were sentenced to death. The charge was the familiar medieval blood libel, which contended that Jewish rituals—­ in particular, the making of Passover matzo—­ demanded the blood of Christians. Blood libels were heard in Europe as far back as the twelfth century. The Jews of Damascus were charged with beheading Father Thomas and draining his blood into a bottle.1 Jewish leaders in Britain and France sought to petition the pasha of Egypt, who controlled Syria at the time, on behalf of the Damascus Jews, but these efforts met resistance from European consular officials. In April 1840, the Board of Deputies of British Jews sent a delegation to the country’s foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston, asking him to use his influence with the pasha to free those condemned to death.2 But the Western powers, vying for influence in the region as the Ottoman Empire declined, hesitated to act. France sought to protect the region’s Christians, and the country’s consul may have believed the charges. By August, French and British Jewish leaders, including Moses Montefiore of the Board of Deputies, appealed directly to the pasha of Egypt, Mehmet Ali, in Alexandria, and the prisoners were released the following month. A similar incident took place on the island of Rhodes, then an Ottoman possession, in May of 1840.3 Once again, intervention by Jewish leaders in Britain led to the release of those held by the ruling pasha. Nevertheless, such incidents illustrate that the blood libel remained a part of folklore well through the nineteenth cen- The First Crisis of American Jewry 17 tury. Sensationalist charges of ritual Jewish killings circulated in the American press as well. In 1850, the New York Herald reported that Jews had drained the blood of a Christian and ground his bones to make unleavened bread for the Passover meal.4 As late as 1893, a Jewish tradesman in Athens was rescued from a mob after accusations that he tried to abduct children for their blood. Even American folk songs of the period perpetuated the mythology.5 In the Damascus affair, American Jews took their cue from their British counterparts, but unlike London’s well-­ organized Jewish community, with its Board of Deputies, Americans lacked any cohesive and central body. As reports reached the United States of the blood libel charges in distant Syria, American congregations responded with protest meetings in New York, Savannah, Philadelphia and Cincinnati; all of these groups asked President Martin Van Buren to act. However, some congregations, jealously guarding their independence , made little effort to coordinate the protests, and some even refused to participate on the grounds that Jews should remain aloof from politics and mass rallies.6 Put Down All Petty Strife Overall,the American Jewish response to the 1840 incidents was late and largely insignificant, but these events awakened a number of congregational leaders, particularly Philadelphia’s Isaac Leeser, to the consequences of their disunity in the event of a crisis. During the Damascus affair, Leeser called for cooperation with Jewish groups in Europe, in particular Montefiore’s Board of Deputies. Jews might live in separate countries, Leeser said, but they had an obligation to aid their coreligionists wherever persecution might arise. Rebecca Gratz, one of Leeser’s flock and the founder of the country’s first Jewish Sunday school, also viewed the persecution in Syria as a sign of the urgency of bringing“all the house of Israel here [in America] into one bond of good faith.”7 The horror of the Damascus blood libel, Gratz said, should provide an impetus for Jews to “put down all petty strife.”8 Nonetheless,“petty strife” continued to divide American congregations through the antebellum years. Attempts at cooperation across congregational and geographic lines still generated suspicion among most American Jews. In 1841, Leeser sought a unified conference of congregations to combat what he saw as the anarchic state of affairs caused by decentralization. Some congregations rejected Leeser’s invitation based on their differences over ritual, and many registered their firm opposition to any form of ecclesiastical authority. [13.58...

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