The Jewish community continued to grow, with German-born immigrants swelling the ranks and Jews moving westward. American Jewry concerned itself with the welfare of Jews everywhere. Efforts included the quixotic if well-intended plan of politician/diplomat Mordecai Manuel Noah for the colony of Ararat in upstate New York as a haven for Jews, in 1825; protests against the blood-libel persecutions in Damascus in 1840, and a U.S. treaty with Switzerland despite its anti-Jewish laws, in the 1850s; and the campaign with leaders like Philadelphia chazzan Isaac Leeser to induce the U.S. to act on the kidnapping of the Mortara boy by the Church in Italy in 1858. But Jews were also prominent in general rights causes. Commodore Uriah P. Levy was a leader in the successful fight to abolish corporal punishment in the Navy. The Polish-born Ernestine Rose was a major campaigner in the emerging women’s rights and antislavery movements in the 1840s and 50s.

By 1860, there were about 150,000 Jews in America. Jews could be found on both sides of the Civil War and the awful controversies that fueled it, but I prefer to think of August Bondi, Viennese-born, who with two other Jews joined forces with John Brown to fight slavery in “Bleeding Kansas;” Reform Rabbi David Einhorn, who preached so forcefully against slavery that he was forced to flee Baltimore for fear of his life; Isidor Bush, a German-Jewish leader in Missouri who appealed for the abolition of slavery in his state in the midst of the war; and the 7000 Jews in the armed forces of the Union. For themselves, Jews, represented by the 3-year-old Board of Deputies of American Israelites, successfully pushed for an 1862 law that authorized Jewish chaplains in the armed forces. And after a protest from Kentucky Jews in late 1862, President Lincoln ordered the revocation of a military order barring Jews from the area covered by the Army’s Department of the Tennessee.
By the late 1870s American Jews numbered about a quarter million. The immigration of about 2 million Jews from Eastern Europe from 1880 to 1924 enlarged the dimensions of Jews’ impact on America and their struggle for Jewish and human rights. The Jewish poet Emma Lazarus provided the stirring inscription welcoming immigrants from the Statue of Liberty. From the late 19th century on, as leaders and rank-and-file, Jews helped build a labor movement struggling for workers’ justice. Labor history is replete with names like Gompers, Hillman, Dubinsky. Lillian Wald helped foster the Progressive Era with social work and advocacy of health and welfare programs for the urban and immigrant poor. Joel Spingarn and Rabbis Stephen Wise and Emil Hirsch helped found the NAACP in 1909 to further African-American rights. Simultaneously, Jews in America worked for worldwide Jewry, especially with the founding of the American Jewish Committee in 1906 and its leadership by prominent figures like lawyer Louis Marshall. It was Marshall who helped secure a public apology from Henry Ford in 1927 for his virulent anti-Semitic publications. In the early 20th century too there were the beginnings of a strong American Zionist movement, featuring dynamic and humane personalities such as Henrietta Szold, founder of Hadassah, and Rabbi Judah Magnes, first President of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Perhaps more than anyone, lawyer and jurist Louis Brandeis personified the Jewish tendency in the 20th century to pursue both the causes of social and economic welfare, and Jewish peoplehood, especially through Zionism.

In the 1930s domestically, Jews, from those in the President’s “brain trust” to former socialists in the labor movement, helped shape and advance the New Deal and its expanded concepts of social justice. But the 30s and 40s posed the greatest challenge to American Jews, in regard to their defense of world Jewry. Here I quote activist/historian/ Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg: “American Jews have been accused in numerous recent studies of having done too little for the Jews of Europe. This charge is essentially not true.” He continues: “Jews had no power to do more. Jews protested in public many times during the war years. Individuals and delegations went to see the President and many high officials of the government. Coordinating committees were organized several times by the major national Jewish organizations to work to rescue the Jews in Europe.” From 1933 there were boycotts and mass demonstrations held by the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, veterans’ groups and others, and desperate lobbying efforts of those like Rabbi Wise of AJCongress. These efforts may have been insufficiently coordinated, and tragically unsuccessful because of governmental indifference, isolationism and considerable U.S. anti-Semitism that did not peak in the polls until 1944. But these efforts did happen. American Jewry also became largely committed to a Jewish state in Palestine with the adoption of the Biltmore Program by the Zionist movement in 1942; this goal reached fruition six years later, as the Jewish community sought to rebuild and prevent further destruction forever. One must further note the commitment and bravery of the 550,000 American Jews in the armed forces (including our own Dr. Bernard Metrick) who served in World War II not only for this country, but for civilization itself.

It was after the war that American Jews, newly influential and respected, and intent on furthering a sense of humanity, embarked upon a glorious era of struggle for both the freedoms of all and for Jewish rights and welfare. Perhaps no Senator stood up more for civil liberties against the excesses of McCarthyism than the veteran statesman Herbert Lehman. The writings and activism of Betty Friedan helped spark the new movement for women’s equality. The Jewish contribution to the civil rights revolution of the 50s and 60s is virtually legendary. Jewish organizations and leaders like Rabbis Abraham J. Heschel, Joachim Prinz, and Arnold Jacob Wolf worked and marched with Martin Luther King and other greats of the civil rights movement. Martyrs included Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, non-violent warriors in the Freedom Summer project in Mississippi in 1964. Organizations such as AJ Congress, lawyers like Jack Greenberg, and Jewish religious groupings supported litigation and legislation to guarantee basic rights for all. Many in the Jewish community extended their activism to opposing the Vietnam War as unjustly destructive and a drain on our domestic resources; here Rabbi Heschel stands out as a moral voice in harmony with his friend Dr. King.

But the postwar era was also remarkable for American Jewish efforts on behalf of Israel and world Jewry. The Six-Day and Yom Kippur Wars heightened Jewish consciousness and resulted in intensified outpourings of support and love for Israel. The 60s and 70s saw the growth of a US-based Soviet Jewry movement, supported by the Congress, led on this issue by a true friend, Senator Henry Jackson. Unlike before, American Jewry now had some political clout, and U.S. support for Israel and mass Soviet Jewish emigration were in considerable part its happy results.

The marvelous journey goes on. American Jews, who now number about six and a half million, continue to support the causes of justice for Jewry and humanity. We know our people are plagued with danger abroad and even here, and we continue to take an active interest in Israel, beleaguered worldwide Jewish communities, and our own security and welfare. We still stand out in recognizing the human dignity and equality of all and working for the eradication of poverty, hunger, tyranny and discrimination. On this July 4th, as we join in the celebration of the ever-inspiring Declaration of Independence, let us pray that the American Jewish community will continue its commitment - for the United States and the world, for Jewry and all humanity - to serve those hallowed causes of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.