To the extent that the political activity of American Jews followed any distinctive pattern in these early decades of the Republic, they were Jeffersonians rather than Hamiltonians, Republican-Democrats rather than Federalists. One reason for this preference was the Jeffersonian dedication to low tariffs, international trade and states' rights planks which appealed to Jewish export and shipping interests. Moreover, the Jewish community was changing from an essentially Iberian to a largely German element. The Jewish immigrants from Germany were often liberal-to-radical political refugees who found the political and social doctrines of the Republican-Democrats attractive. [. . .]
Despite the protests of Noah, "a substantial majority" of the 15,000 or so American Jews supported the Van Buren Administration--that of probably the most radical President in American history prior to the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt.l2
In return for this support, or perhaps as a matter of principle, Van Buren supported Jewish protests against the Damascus ritual murder affair of 1840. The Damascus authorities had accused seven Jews of having kidnapped and murdered two Christians so they could secretly drink their blood during Passover services. [. . .]
Mass meetings of the Jewish communities of New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston and other cities sent urgent petitions to the President. At Charleston, a general meeting of all citizens was held, with the support of Mayor Henry L. Pinckney and the Roman Catholic Bishop of the city, to protest the persecution of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire.
American Jews in the Jacksonian Era
In an 1826 memorandum, the Charleston journalist, Isaac Harby, estimated that the largest Jewish community in the United States was that of South Carolina with 1,200 members. He thought New York was in second place with 950 Jews, followed by 400 apiece in Virginia and Georgia, perhaps 350 in New England and the same number in Pennsylvania, 100 in Louisiana and not more than 40 in Florida.
If these figures are accurate, over 55% of American Jewry lived in the South. However, the picture was changing. Harby thought there had been no growth in the Charleston Jewish community for twenty years, while that of New York was rapidly expanding.
The Jew in American Politics (part 2): 1820s-1840s
"a substantial majority" of the 15,000 or so
American Jews supported the Van Buren Administration--that of probably the most radical President in American history prior to the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt:
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The fact that before the 20th century, Jews were most numerous and welcome in the American South has always struck me as odd. But that's how it was -- many Jews served prominent positions in the Confederacy, and were elected to public office throughout the South.
I've always been fascinated by Lewis C. Levin, leader of the Know Nothing Party. He was a Jew from South Carolina, yet lead the party of anti-Catholic nativists in the mid 1800s. If you're a believer in the Official Narrative, this is a real head scratcher. Isn't the South supposed to be full of evil bigots?
It seems like colonial-stock Anglo-Americans were much more tolerant of Jews than later immigrants (especially German Catholics).
Jews were an insignificant minority for most of early American history. Jews made up something like 0.1% of the population in 1790 and 0.6% in 1880.
On the whole, America was remarkably tolerant, probably partly owing to the influence of englightenment thought and partly because the very small number of Jews meant greater pressure for them to assimilate and remain inoffensive to the majority.
"It seems like colonial-stock Anglo-Americans were much more tolerant of Jews than later immigrants (especially German Catholics)."
When Jews began to immigrate in large numbers after 1880, they burned through a great deal of Anglo-Americans tolerance very quickly.
The view that anti-Semitism in America began with the upper classes and was spread by them among the guileless and well-meaning masses was not confined to radical publicists such as Carey McWilliams. It was propagated by academically respectable people such as Professor Oscar Handlin of Harvard, who generalized about the motivations and conduct of the American upper class in the following vein:
"The famous exclusion of Joseph Seligman from a fashionable Saratoga resort hotel . . . foreshadowed an evolving pattern that became a particular feature of fashionable resort life. . . . It was after all at the beaches and watering places that the putative aristocracy was most anxious to withdraw to itself so that appropriate group feelings would be cultivated and so that the proper friendships among young people would grow into the proper marriages. . . . More was involved in this development than the offended feelings of a few vain or ambitious families. High society set the standard for the country. . . ."
The South remained the region most favorable to Jews (also by this time being the region with the lowest concentration of Jews).
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