Nah ...
---
Yeah ...
example:
The creation of the United States of America represented a unique
event in world history. Founded as a modern republic, it was rooted in
the Bible, and one of its earliest tenets was religious tolerance. Of
course, this was because many of the earliest pilgrims who settled the
"New England" of America in early 17th century were Puritan refugees
escaping religious persecutions in Europe.
These Puritans viewed their emigration from England as a virtual re-
enactment of the Exodus. To them, England was Egypt, the king was the
Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean was the Red Sea, America was the Land of
Israel, and the Indians were the ancient Canaanites. The Puritans were
the new Israelites, entering into a new covenant with God in a new
Promised Land.
Thanksgiving - first celebrated in 1621, a year after the Mayflower
landed - was initially conceived as a day parallel to the Jewish Day
of Atonement, Yom Kippur; it was to be a day of fasting, introspection
and prayer. Writes Gabriel Sivan in The Bible and Civilization:
No Christian community in history identified more with the People
of the Book than did the early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay
Colony, who believed their own lives to be a literal reenactment of
the biblical drama of the Hebrew nation... these ?migr? Puritans
dramatized their own situation as the righteous remnant of the Church
corrupted by the "Babylonian woe" and saw themselves as instruments of
Divine Providence, a people chosen to build their new commonwealth on
the Covenant entered into at Mount Sinai.1
Previously, during the Puritan Revolution in England (which took place
between 1642 and 1648), some Puritan extremists had even sought to
replace English Common Law with biblical laws of the Old Testament,
but were prevented from doing so. In America, however, there was far
more freedom to experiment with the use of biblical law in the legal
codes of the colonies, and this was exactly what the pilgrims set out
to do.
The earliest legislation of the colonies of New England was all
determined by the Bible. For example, at the first assembly of New
Haven in 1639, John Davenport clearly emphasized the primacy of the
Bible as the legal and moral foundation of the colony:
"Scriptures do hold forth a perfect rule for the direction and
government of all men in all duties which they are to perform to God
and men as well as in the government of families and commonwealth as
in matters of the Church... the Word of God shall be the only rule to
be attended unto in organizing the affairs of government in this
plantation."2
Subsequently, the New Haven legislators adopted a legal code - the
Code of 1655 - which contained some 79 statutes, half of which
included biblical references, virtually all from the Hebrew Bible. The
Plymouth Colony had a similar law code as did the Massachusetts
assembly, which, in 1641 adopted the so-called Capital Laws of New
England based almost entirely on Mosaic law.
Of course, without a Jewish Oral Tradition, which helped the Jews
understand the Bible, the Puritans were left to their own devices and
tended toward a literal interpretation. This led in some instances to
a stricter, more fundamentalist observance than Judaism had ever seen.
Jewish Symbolism in America
The Hebrew Bible also played a central role in the founding of various
educational institutions including Harvard, Yale, William and Mary,
Rutgers, Princeton, Brown, King's College (later to be known as
Columbia), Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth etc. In virtually all of these
colleges, Bible studies were required and some even adopted some
Hebrew word or phrase as part of their official emblem or seal.
Beneath the banner containing the Latin Lux et Veritas, the Yale seal
shows an open book with the Hebrew Urim V'Timum, a part of the
breastplate of the High Priest in the days of the Temple. The Columbia
seal has the Hebrew name for God at the top center, with the Hebrew
name for one of the angels on a banner toward the middle. Dartmouth
uses the Hebrew words meaning "God Almighty" in a triangle in the
upper center of its seal.
So popular was the Hebrew language in the late 17th and early 18th
centuries that Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Princeton, Johns
Hopkins, and the University of Pennsylvania taught courses in Hebrew -
all the more remarkable because no university in England at the time
offered such - and students had the option of delivering commencement
speeches in Hebrew, Latin or Greek.3
Many of the Founding Fathers of America were products of these
universities - for example, Thomas Jefferson attended William and
Mary, James Madison - Princeton, Alexander Hamilton - King's College.
Thus, we can be sure that a majority of these political leaders were
not only well acquainted with the contents of the Bible, but also had
some working knowledge of Hebrew. Notes Abraham Katsch in The Biblical
Heritage of American Democracy:
At the time of the American Revolution, the interest in the
knowledge of Hebrew was so widespread as to allow the circulation of
the story that "certain members of Congress proposed that the use of
English be formally prohibited in the United States, and Hebrew
substituted for it."4
Their biblical education colored the American founders' attitude
toward not only religion and ethics, but most significantly, politics.
We see them adopting the biblical motifs of the Puritans for political
reasons. For example, the struggle of the ancient Hebrews against the
wicked Pharaoh came to embody the struggle of the colonists against
English tyranny. Numerous examples can be found which clearly
illustrate to what a significant extent the political struggles of the
colonies were identified with the ancient Hebrews:
The first design for the official seal of the United States
recommended by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in
1776 depicted the Jews crossing the Red Sea. The motto around the seal
read: "Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God."
The inscription on the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in
Philadelphia was a direct quote from the Book of Leviticus "Proclaim
liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof."5
Patriotic speeches and publications during the period of the
struggle for independence were often infused with biblical quotations.
The basic framework of America clearly reflects the influence of the
Bible and power of Jewish ideas in shaping the political development
of America. Nowhere is this more evident than in the opening sentences
of the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights, that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
While these words echo the ideas of the Enlightenment, without a doubt
the concept that these rights come from God is of biblical origin.
This and the other documents of early America make it clear that the
concept of a God-given standard of morality is a central pillar of
American democracy. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST first appeared on U.S.
currency in 1864 and in 1956 an Act of Congress (largely passed as a
counterforce to Godlessness of communism) made it the official motto
of the United States.
Many more things can be said about the Jewish influence on the values
of America, but this is, after all, a crash course. We next turn to
the Jews themselves.
Early American Jews
The history of Jews in America begins before the United States was an
independent country.
The first Jews arrived in America with Columbus in 1492, and we also
know that Jews newly-converted to Christianity were among the first
Spaniards to arrive in Mexico with Conquistador Hernando Cortez in
1519. In fact, so many Jewish conversos came to Mexico that the
Spanish made a rule precluding anyone who could not prove Catholic
ancestry for four generations back from migrating there. Needless to
say, the Inquisition soon followed to make sure these Jewish conversos
were not really heretics, and burnings at the stake became a regular
feature of life in Mexico City.
As for North America, the recorded Jewish history there begins in 1654
with the arrival in New Amsterdam (later to be known as New York) of
23 Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil (where the Dutch had just lost
their possessions to the Portuguese). New Amsterdam was also a Dutch
possession, but the governor, Peter Stuyvesant, did not want the Jews
there. Writes Arthur Hertzberg in The Jews in America:
Two weeks after they landed, Stuyvesant heard the complaint from
the local merchants and from the Church that "the Jews who had arrived
would nearly all like to remain here." Stuyvesant decided to chase
them out. Using the usual formulas of religious invective - he called
the Jews "repugnant," "deceitful," and "enemies and blasphemers of
Christ" - Stuyvesant recommended to his directors... "to require them
in a friendly way to depart."6
The only reasons the Jews were not turned away was that the Dutch West
Indian Company, which was heavily depended on Jewish investments,
blocked it.
By 1776 and the War of Independence, there were an estimated 2,000
(mostly Sephardic) Jews (men, women and children) living in America,
yet - though their numbers were relatively small - their contribution
to the cause was significant. For example, in Charleston, South
Carolina, almost every adult Jewish male fought on the side of
freedom. In Georgia, the first patriot to be killed was a Jew (Francis
Salvador). And additionally, the Jews provided significant financing
to the patriots.
The most important of the financiers was Haym Salomon who lent a great
deal of money to the Continental Congress. In the last days of the
war, Salomon advanced the American government $200,000. He was never
paid back and died bankrupt.
President George Washington remembered the Jewish contribution when
the first synagogue opened in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1790. (It was
called the Touro Synagogue and it was Sephardic.) He sent this letter,
dated August 17, 1790:
"May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in the land
continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants.
While everyone shall sit safely under his own vine and fig-tree and
there shall be none to make him afraid."
Note the reference to the "vine and fig-tree." That unique phrase is a
reference to the words of Prophet Micah, prophesying the Messianic
utopia:
But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of
the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall
flow to it. And many nations shall come, and say, "Come, and let us go
up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob,
and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for
Torah shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem."
And He shall judge between many peoples and shall decide
concerning far away strong nations; and they shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, nor shall they learn war any more. But
they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; and
none shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Master of Legions
has spoken it.7
This was an interesting choice of words on the part of Washington,
but, as noted above, it is not surprising in light of the enormous
influence that the Hebrew Bible had on the pilgrims and on the
founding fathers of the new nation.
It must be noted however that some of the other founding fathers were
a bit more ambivalent about the Jews than was Washington.
John Adams, who said some highly complimentary things about the Jews,8
also noted that "it is very hard work to love most of them." And he
looked forward to the day when "the asperities and peculiarities of
their character" would be worn away, and they would become "liberal
Unitarian Christians."
Thomas Jefferson thought Jews needed more secular learning so that
"they will become equal object of respect and favor," implying that
without such learning they could not expect to be respected. Writes
Arthur Hertzberg in The Jews in America:
Jefferson was thus expressing the view of the mainstream of the
Enlightenment, that all men could attain equal place in society, but
the "entrance fee" was that they should adopt the ways and the outlook
of the "enlightened." Jefferson did not consider that a Yiddish-
speaking Jew who knew the Talmud was equal in usefulness to society
with a classically trained thinker like himself.9
This idea that there was freedom for you in America as long as you
were not "too Jewish," kept most Jews away. Until 1820, the Jewish
population of America was only about 6,000!
This changed in the 1830s when Reform German Jews, who had scrapped
traditional Judaism and were not "too Jewish," began to arrive. The
great migrations of poor, oppressed Jews from Eastern Europe would
follow near the turn of the century. But before we take up that story,
we must look to see what was happening to the Jews of Europe.
Watch a 3-minute video: "America's Biblical Values" with Rabbi Ken
Spiro
http://www.jewishpathways.com/class/jews-and-founding-america
On Aug 7, 10:15 am, MJ <[email protected]> wrote:
> Nah ... most Government schools teach the Big Government, US White Hat
> version of history which typically bears only kernels to reality.
> One of the reasons why SEPARATING the Government from schools should be the
> primary goal of anyone seeking to restore liberty.
> Regard$,
> --MJ
> In our government-controlled schools we are taught that Lincoln was our
> greatest president because his war ended slavery and saved the Union. As
> usual, the other side of the story -- the side that reflects poorly on the
> government -- somehow gets lost. -- Richard J. Maybury, The Abe Lincoln
> HoaxAt 11:10 AM 8/7/2012, you wrote:American students are alarmingly
> ignorant about U.S. history and world events.
> ---
> according to jewish history revisionists
--
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