Morris Jacob Raphall

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Morris Jacob Raphall (1850)

Morris Jacob Raphall (October 3, 1798 – June 23, 1868) was a rabbi and author born in Stockholm, Sweden. From 1849 until his death he resided in the United States. He is most remembered for having declared, on the eve of the Civil War, that the Bible and God endorse slavery.

Biography

At the age of nine Raphall was taken by his father, who was banker to the

University of Erlangen (Germany). After lecturing on Hebrew poetry in 1834 he began to publish the Hebrew Review, and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature, the first Jewish periodical in England;[1] he was forced to discontinue it in 1836 owing to ill health.[6]

For some time he acted as honorary secretary to

blood accusation was made at Damascus, he traveled to Syria to aid in the investigation,[1] and published a refutation of it in four languages (Hebrew, English, French, and German). He also wrote a defense of Judaism against an anonymous writer in the London Times. Raphall was also the author of a text-book of the post-Biblical history of the Jews (to the year 70 C.E.).[6]

In 1841 he was appointed minister of the

B'nai Jeshurun congregation, at the time called the Greene Street Synagogue. He continued there until 1866, his duties then being relaxed owing to his poor health.[6]
He died in New York on June 23, 1868.

Views on slavery

In the years preceding the American Civil War, prominent Jewish religious leaders in the United States engaged in public debates, usually in writing, about slavery.[8][9] Generally, rabbis from the Southern states supported slavery, and those from the North opposed slavery,[10] but there were many exceptions. The most notable debate[9]: 17–19 [11] was between Raphall, who endorsed slavery,[12] and David Einhorn[13] and Michael Heilprin, two more liberal rabbis who opposed it.[14] 150 years after emancipation, Ken Yellis and Richard Kreitner wrote in The Forward that the record shows that New York's Jews were overwhelmingly pro-slavery and on the wrong side of history regarding slavery and the Civil War.[15][16]

As "the dissolution of the Union [became] more and more imminent [President]

Ninevah
is saved from destruction (by God) since the residents heeded the warning of Jonah. Raphall's position was that if both sides would heed the Bible, the upcoming calamity could be avoided.

"[H]e took the square stand that Judaism sanctioned slavery and that the institution was morally right."

fugitive slaves must be returned to their owners;[18]: 241–243  the Bible contains many regulations about how slaves should be treated.[18] "My friends, I find, and I am sorry to find, that I am delivering a pro-slavery discourse. I am no friend to slavery in the abstract, and still less friendly to the practical workings of slavery. But I stand here as a teacher in Israel; not to place before you my own feelings and opinions, but to propound to you the word of God, the Bible view of slavery.... The slave is a person...he [sic] has rights. Whereas, the heathen view of slavery which...I am sorry to say, is adopted in the South, reduces the slave to a thing, and a thing has no rights."[18]
: 239 

His discourse was published the next day on the first page of the

New York Times.[20] At "the invitation of a number of leading gentleman of this city", he repeated his talk a week later as a public lecture (tickets required),[21] and by February 1 it was advertised for sale as a 20-page pamphlet, The Bible View of Slavery.[22]

Einhorn and Heilprin, concerned that Raphall's position would be seen as the official policy of American Judaism, vigorously disputed his arguments, and argued that slavery – as practiced in the South – was immoral and not endorsed by Judaism.[11]

Einhorn replied in his German-language publication Sinai, Vol. VI, 1861, p. 2-22; it was immediately published in English translation as a pamphlet, The Rev. Dr. M. J. Raphall's Bible View of Slavery, reviewed by the Rev. E. Einhorn,

D.D., New York, 1861. Michael Heilprin replied in the New York Tribune, January 11, 1861.[23]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Raphall, Morris Jacob" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. V. 1900. p. 183.
  2. ^ 1850 United States Federal Census
  3. ^ "Person Details – Synagogue Scribes Jewish Genealogy". synagoguescribes.com. 3 October 2010. Retrieved 2022-03-29.
  4. ^ Manasseh Goldstein, September 1821, retrieved 2022-03-29
  5. ^ Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, 22 Feb 1827
  6. ^ a b c d Jacobs, Joseph; Cohen, Israel (1906). "Raphall, Morris Jacob". Jewish Encyclopedia.
  7. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, NY
    . 30 November 1849. p. 2.
  8. ISBN 0-87441-421-0
    .
  9. ^
    OCLC 0814344712
    .
  10. ISBN 0-231-10841-9
    .
  11. ^
    ISBN 1-55849-236-4
    .
  12. ^ Rock, Howard B. (2012). "Upheaval, Innovation, and Transformation: New York City Jews and the Civil War" (PDF). American Jewish Archives Journal. LXIV: 1–2, 7–9, 11–13, 16, 20–26.
  13. ^ "David Einhorn's Response to 'A Biblical View of Slavery' [translated from German]". Sinai. Vol. 6. 1861. pp. 2–22. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
  14. ^ Friedman, Murray (2007). What went wrong?: the creation and collapse of the Black-Jewish Alliance. Simon and Schuster. pp. 25–26.
  15. ^ Yellis, Ken (July 1, 2013). "Jews Mostly Supported Slavery — Or Kept Silent — During Civil War". The Forward.
  16. ^ Kreitner, Richard (January 30, 2015). "The Powerful Example Of The Jewish Abolitionists We Forgot". The Forward.
  17. ^
    JSTOR 43058622
    .
  18. ^ a b c d e f Raphall, M. J. (1861). "Bible View of Slavery. A Discourse Delivered at the Jewish Synagogue, New York, on the Day of the National Fast, Jan. 4, 1861". Fast day sermons; or, The pulpit on the state of the country. New York: Rudd & Carleton. pp. 227–246.
  19. ^ "The Rev. Dr. Raphael [sic], Rabbi". New York Daily Herald. January 5, 1861. pp. 1, 2.
  20. New York Times
    . January 5, 1861. p. 3.
  21. ^ "The Lecture Season". New York Daily Herald. January 14, 1861. p. 8.
  22. Brooklyn Daily Eagle
    . February 1, 1861. p. 2.
  23. ^ "Michael Heilprin's Anti-Slavery Editorial". Jewish-History.com. Retrieved 18 May 2019.

External links

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Raphall, Morris Jacob". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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