Studying Hidden History

In a week where American history was made, our sixth grade students were studying the history of America. Our specific focus this Sunday was the history of Jews in the Civil War. We introduced the topic by examining the topic at large through this amazing video which features some of the best historians of Jewish America :

Three films from Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War from Yeshiva University Museum on Vimeo.

We then examined the role of two prominent Jews during the era, Judah P. Benjamin and Edward Salomon. Judah P. Benjamin was an American Jew from Louisiana who served as the First Attorney General of the Confederate States of America.  He rose to be Secretary of State the Confederacy, the second highest position in their government, even appearing on their currency.

At the end of the war, his marriage broken and his cause defeated, he fled to England, where he remained for the rest of his life. While 8000 Jews fought for the Union,  over 2000 fought for the Confederacy. It is difficult for us to encounter Jews who supported the Confederacy and were proponents of slavery,  but as Rabbi Chainkin-Gould said during his visit to our virtual classroom,  it is only by facing the truth of our past that we can learn from it.  

In a delightful contrast,  Edward Seilig Salomon was a German Jewish immigrant whose family had multiple members serve in the Union army.   Salomon's life and achivements are incredible.  He became Chicago's youngest alderman at age 24,  rose to Lt. Colonel in the Civil war, and fought at Gettysburg alongside Genereal Carl Schurz with incredible daring and bravery: he survived not one but two horses shot out from under him as he rallied troops on the front lines.  One of seven Jews promoted to general during the Civil war  (you can read about all seven here at the Cleveland Jewish News),  he later would be governor of the Territory of Washington, and then many other posts.  An amazing fighter and public servant whose name is worth  knowing. 

You can read more about Benjamin here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin and Salomon here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_S._Salomon. 

After our unit on American history, we continued our unit on Divorce in Judaism, studying the differences and shared properties of a Ketubah (wedding contract), such as these by artist Daniel Howarth:(https://howarthpapercuts.tripod.com/)

and a Get (divorce document). 

As you can see from these examples,  the Ketubah can combine English and Hebrew,  calligrahy and papercutting,   be abstract or  realistic, and is different for each couple.   The  Get is plain and without any ornament,  the text  and format fixed for all. Yet both require wintesses,  name the parties involved, have a date and location,  and  mark crucial moments in life.  Both are part of a life of Mitzvot, the commandments that lie at the heart of Judaism. 

We also took a few moments to explore Israeli cultural and political current events, such as the amazing vaccination of over 12% of Israels population in just the past few weeks!  Let's hope other coutnries can be inspired -- and supplied-- to do as well.