Tikvah
Subscribe
MosaicImage of Mosaic
Editor's Pick

February 1, 2022

The Ugly Story of the Confederacy’s Most Prominent Jew

Judah P. Benjamin, an Israelite with Egyptian principles.

Born in 1811 into a Sephardi family on the British-occupied island St. Croix (now in the U.S. Virgin Islands), and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, Judah P. Benjamin holds the dubious distinction of having owned more slaves than any other Jews in the United States. By all accounts a brilliant lawyer—his treatise on the sale of personal property is still in print—Benjamin rose to prominence during the Civil War, during which time he served as the Confederacy’s attorney general, secretary of war, and then secretary of state. Paul Finkelman reviews James Traub’s recent biography of this figure American Jews might prefer to forget:

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Get the best Jewish ideas and conversations. Subscribe to Tikvah Ideas All Access for $12/month

Login or Subscribe
Save

February 1, 2022

  1. As Israel Becomes More Central to Diaspora Judaism, Judaism Is Becoming More Central to Israel

    The Diaspora strikes back.

  2. Washington Shouldn’t Underestimate Israel’s Resolve in Preventing Iran from Getting the Bomb

    Or the effects of American of weakness.

  3. Confessions of a Recovering Anti-Semite

    “A Muslim shande.”

  4. One Man’s Story of Maintaining Judaism in the Face of Soviet Tyranny

    The tsaddik of Leningrad.

  5. The Ugly Story of the Confederacy’s Most Prominent Jew

    Judah P. Benjamin, an Israelite with Egyptian principles.