Dear
Mr. President:
I am currently
researching your career for a class that I teach to 5th graders at our
school. Clearly you were a remarkable individual. Could you tell me if you
had any contacts with the Jewish community of your era? What was your
relationship with the Jews of your day?
Respectfully,
Rabbi Shmuel Jablon
Head of Lower School
Fuchs Mizrachi
School, Cleveland
My Dear Rabbi Jablon,
Your good note of the 23rd of June came to
hand and I thank you for your kind compliment. I apologize for the delay in
responding--I am in the midst of a busy, yet pleasant summer here at my Mentor
Farm where I am deluged with correspondence and hundreds of visitors every
day. I feel, however, that my speaking from my front porch has been
well-received.
As to your question regarding my contacts
with the Jewish community, allow me to answer somewhat chronologically. The
first Jewish immigration to Cuyahoga County occurred around 1837 and were
mainly German Jews; the first arrived from Bavaria. At this point, I was
living in Orange Township in a log cabin on a small farm and was isolated from
real civilization. I was reading the Bible at age three, but my first real
exposure to your religion was probably after my baptism in the Disciples of
Christ Church in 1850.
The Disciples, or "Cambellites," endeavor to
follow closely New Testament models, however, many of our Elders learn
Hebrew (and Greek) in order to read the Old Testament in its original
language. My father-in-law, Zeb Rudolph, is an excellent example of
a leader in the Disciples Church in Portage County who was tutored in Greek
and Hebrew by a scholar from Nelson (a town close to Garrettsville where Zeb
lived). I took classes in the Hebrew language and literature while attending
Williams College in Massachusetts in 1855-56. I have continued my study of
religion and philosophy throughout my life--you can witness this yourself by
looking over my library of more than 2,000 books. I have more than ten books
about Judaism and Hebrew, including Hebrew Grammar by Gesenius, The
Essence of Judaism by Isaac Wise, The Jews, Their Customs & Ceremonies
by E. M. Myers, and Judaism Excelled by Jonas A. David.
As a congressman, I have used your people's
experiences to promote a point. In a speech I delivered to the House in
February 1866, called "Restoration of the Southern States," I asked my fellow
congressmen to reflect upon the dealings of God with the Jewish nation. I
referenced the chosen people crossing the Red Sea and asked that they learn
wisdom from this illustrious example. I also studied the Jewish Census in
preparing an article I contributed to Johnson's New Universal Cyclopedia
that compared how the census has been used in different periods of
history.
I hope that this answers your inquiry. I
look forward with joy and hope to the day when our brave People, one in heart,
one in their aspirations for freedom and peace, shall see that the darkness
through which we have traveled was but a part of the stern but beneficent
discipline by which the great Disposer of events has been leading us on to a
higher and nobler national life.
Very respectfully,
J. A. Garfield
P.S. The President's secretary adds that
although the Jewish community in Cuyahoga County continued to grow during
Garfield's lifetime, there were no particular references to his interaction
with individuals from that community in his diary or other writings that have
been found to-date.
Go to the
Garfield Home's Ask President Garfield Page
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www.fuchsmizrachi.org
