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Page 18-THE NEWS-November. 1985
JUJB
Jewish Books in Review
is a service of the IWB lewish Book Council,
15 East 2bth St., New York, N.Y. 10010
Jews, Turks and Infidels. Mor
ton Borden. The University of
North Carolina Press, - Box
2288, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
1984. $17.95
Reviewed By Jeffrey S. Gurock
Historians of American
Jewish life have long written
of the ease and speed with
which Jews in this country
gained their emancipation.
Four basic freedoms — the
right to settle, the right to
worship publicly, the right to
work without restrictions, £md
the right to vote — were large
ly attained, it has been argued,
through inadvertence on the
part of Gentile society,
without discussion or debate.
That Jews, it has been
claimed, were simply not a
pressing social or political
issue in the colonial and early
national periods, is graphical
ly illustrated by the fact that
the great documents of
American freedom ranging
from the Decljuration of In
dependence to the Bill of
Rights make no reference to
Jews, In America there was no
need for an Emancipation Pro
clamation for Jews: their
rights were implicitly gained
and protected by the separa
tion of church and state doc
trine as expressed in various
Articles of the Constitution.
This wide-spread silent
toleration of the Jews, Morton
Borden’s timely work pointed
ly argues, did not extend
however to the fifth and most
decisive freedom: the right to
rule over Gentiles, or, as it is
more commonly expressed,
the right to hold public office.
Here Borden shows that few
states quickly or easily follow
ed the Federal Constitution’s
lead in not requiring “a
religious test...as a qualifica
tion to any office.” Long into
the 19th Century, states main
tained legislation extant from
colonial days which denied full
citizenship to this or that
group of dissenting Christians
and, as the title of this book
suggests, Jews, Turks and
Infidels.
Borden recounts the oft-told
tale of the long battle for the
Maryland “Jew Bill.” And he
details the equally familiar
saga of Jacob Henry, a Jew
who eloquently argued for
religious freedom as he took
his seat in the North Carolina
legislature without taking the
Christian oath.
For Borden, the drive to
keep Jews as second-class
citizens emanated predomin
ately from Christian religious
and evangelical sources. Their
leged compeiign was part of a
l£irger agenda to define the
United States as a Christian
Republic, not as a non
sectarian democracy. Their
zealousness was expressed in
attempts to chemge the Con
stitution to acknowledge the
divinity of Jesus Christ, in ef
forts on the foreign policy
scene to project America as
Christian, and in their largely
successful defense of Sunday
Blue Laws. Borden’s work of
fers cleeir evidence that the
“America is a Christian Na
tion” spokesmen of today
have a long history of
American intolerance to draw
upon.
But has this legacy of pre
judice in our country been a
cause for grave Jewish con
cern? Borden’s history sug
gests that although apostles
of discord have had their say
and have found their listeners
within and without govern
ment, to date — with the ex
ception of blue laws which in
our own day have largely been
repealed — measures propos
ed by evangelicals and
residual law book liabilities
have not measurably damag
ed Jewish life in America.
Most probably, Jewish securi
ty in this area has been in
sured by the very presence of
those more ephemeral infidel
and Turk groups, a theme
which this volume should have
considered in greater detail
but treats only peripherally.
Jeffrey S. Gurock is
Associate Professor of
American Jewish History at
Yeshiva University.
Mayor Harvey Gantt talks with some of the 300 people who attended
his Oneg Shabbat presentation on Israel at Temple Beth El. Looking on
(L) is Allan Oxman, Interfaith chair of Federation Community Relations
Committee which sponsored the Mayor’s mission to Israel and the Oneg.
Wildacres Works Its Magic
(cont’d from page 1)
Rabbi Wilson 3) ADULT
PROGRAMMING: Peggy
Gartner and Abe Luski 4) AD
MIN ISTR AT I ON/COM
PUTERIZATION: Shelton
Gorelick 5) LIBRARY: Sally
Schrader 6) PLANNING
PROCESS: Bill Gorelick.
Each task force will contain
representatives from all the
Institutions. The goal is to be
able to present ideas and ac
tion plans to the Executive
Committees and Boards of the
Institutions by January 1,
1986.
As the retreat drew to a
close, there was complete ac
cord on one future plan — next
year, and each year thereafter,
a retreat at Wildacres should
be held for as many as 100 of
our community’s leaders
drawn from the Boards and
Committees of our institutions
and organizations. Plans are
already under way to establish
such a retreat at Wildacres.
The twenty-four attending
this year were: Foundation
Board Elected Members:
Mark Bernstein, Herman
Blumenthal, Alan Blumen-
thsil, Abe Luski; Temple Beth
El: Sally Schrader, Bill Grif-
fenhagen and Rabbi and Mrs.
Krantzler; Temple Israel: Bill
Ashendorf and Rabbi Wilson;
JCC: Miles Levine and Larry
Gerber; Hebrew Academy:
Peggy Gartner, Lgirry Widis
and Eleanor Weinglass, Direc
tor: Temple Beth Shalom:
John Burtoft; Federation: Ron
Katz, Marvin Bienstock, Ex
ecutive Director, and
Adrienne Rosenberg, Director
of Social Services.
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