PEOPLE CANNOT CHANGE TRUTH, BUT TRUTH CAN CHANGE PEOPLE.

TEI Comments on "Jews in the Confederacy" Article in Atlanta Journal and Constitution

01.09.01

Dear Mr. Hendrick,

Thank you for your informative and well written article “Jews in the Confederacy” published in the Dixie Living section of the Sunday January 7^th 2001 newspaper containing an analysis of Robert Rosen’s book entitled “The Jewish Confederates.”

The circumstances surrounding the Civil War, and the strange alliances that were developed as a result of it are wounds that exist in Southern society to this very day. More and more information is coming forth, from Jewish sources – detailing the considerable involvement of Jews in the culture of the South – a history that includes slavery and the owning of other human beings.

Certainly, recent efforts by academic researchers, including Mr. Rosen paint a more complete picture of the true relationship between inhabitants of the pre-Civil War South, a demographic for the most part composed of two types of people – slaves and those who owned slaves.

The fact that Jews owned slaves, while certainly an unpleasant reality for many within the Jewish community has been proven to be undoubtedly true.  On the Atlanta Journal and Constitution’s website, it is posted that Rosen’s  book “reveals what amounts to a de facto cover-up of the 300-plus-year history of Jews in the South” while indicating at the same time that many within the Jewish community are disturbed that such a book has been written.  Why are some members of the Jewish community upset by this?

The disclosure of the fact that some Jewish families in the South should not be considered an affront to the Jewish people for all groups have the proverbial "skeletons in the closet." However, it does give us a glimpse into a resilient Jewish community that has prospered culturally and economically for over a century in the South – at times – at the expense of others.

Owning other human beings in the pre-Civil War south, because of the fact that it was socially acceptable at the time and a part of the culture is still unacceptable, no matter how logical it may sound or how true it may be.  This should not be used as justification by members of the Jewish community as a way of absolving themselves of culpability and involvement in slavery.

We find it particularly troubling that Mr. Martin Perlmutter, director of Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston seems to justify the fact that Jewish people owned slaves in attempt to obfuscate matters by engaging in specious claims of anti-Semitism directed at others,  who are not Jewish, who have successfully pointed out these truths and researched this particular topic of Jewish involvement in slavery in the past.  Surely Mr. Rosen, who is Jewish, would not be considered an anti-Semite for making these truths known?

No one knows the motivation of another, and while not attempting to cast aspersions on the character of Mr. Rosen, nor fully knowing his reasons  researching this topic, I do believe that the discussion of this topic by Jews is something that is long overdue.  

Mr. Rosen should be commended for having the courage to write a book telling the truth, even though that truth may be unflattering to the Jewish people. 

Ashahed M. Muhammad
Executive Director
The Truth Establishment Institute
"People cannot change truth, but truth can change people."
www.truthinstitute.org

Related Link: TEI Discovery Series II: Confederate Realities