Abstract
Later-twentieth-century American Jewish thinkers scarcely deviated from these ideas. [Arnold M. Eisen] shows that such diverse American Jewish religious leaders as Leo Jung, Samuel Belkin, Abba Hillel Silver, Jacob Rader Marcus, Nelson Glueck, Louis Finkelstein, Simon Greenberg, and Robert Gordis all argued in various ways for the compatibility of Judaism and American democracy.(27) Judah Pilch similarly extolled the secular Jewish thinker, Horace Kallen, for finding in both Americanism and Hebraism "a singleness of purpose." "His Jewishness," he argued, paraphrasing [Louis D. Brandeis], made Kallen "a more enlightened American and a more conscientious citizen of the world," and his "Americanism" made him "a nobler Jew."(28) [Mordecai M. Kaplan]'s phrasing, if more tentative, echoed the same familiar idea: "The American religion of democracy has room for Judaism, and Jewish religion has room for American democracy."(29) Such quotations, a staple of American Jewish oratory for over a century, may well have been impelled, as Eisen argues, by "anti-Semitism and resultant Jewish insecurity" as well as by the reality that Jews felt "at home in a gentile nation to a degree unknown to most of their [European] parents." It may also be, as he theorizes, that "the identification of Judaism with America rendered the abandonment of Judaism...unnecessary" since "by being a better Jew, one became a better American as well, and to be a better American was what the children of the immigrants most wanted."(30) As the examples of Kallen and Kaplan demonstrate, however, the cult of synthesis was not just whipped up for internal consumption. Jews also looked outward and attempted to transform America's vision of itself. By undercutting the claims of "Christian America" and promoting pluralism as a national ideal, they attempted to forge a new America -- one where they might finally be accepted as insiders.(31) The 400th anniversary of [Christopher Columbus]'s voyage echoed these same themes. The celebration coincided with Hoshanah Rabba, the last day of the Jewish festival of Sukkot, and Jewish leaders made the most of the correspondence. "The day on which the Jews...in every part of the world were singing their hosannas," one speaker pointed out, the cry "Tierra, Tierra" ("Land, Land") arose from the Pinta. [Jacob Joseph] published yet another special prayer (this one written by his assistant Julius Buchhalter), and its flowery Hebrew text expressed gratitude not only for Columbus, "the first man in the New World," but also for the two Jews who, according to the prayer, accompanied him on his voyage. The prayer also pledged proud allegiance to the values that the United States stood for and invoked God's blessing upon the president and his administration. Rabbinic sermons made the same points. One was entitled "The Importance of Columbus's Discovery for the Jews." Another considered "The Achievements of Columbus for the Benefit of Mankind and the Jews in Particular." A third expressed gratitude to God for Columbus, since he had "founded a haven of repose for our noble race... [H]e discovered a country for wandering Israel as well as for others." [Isaac Mayer Wise], in a retrospective on the day, took note of the rhetorical excesses that his rabbinical colleagues fell prey to. "Columbus Day," he observed, "was celebrated in most all temples and synagogues in the land with special eclat; the structures were decorated with national flags[;] choirs and congregations sang the national songs; preachers delivered eloquent orations. A vast amount of patriotism was elaborated and consummated." While admitting that the "outbursts of patriotism" were "extremely edifying to loyal citizens," Wise condemned the "Columbus culte [sic]" as "less legitimate in the estimation of strict monotheists." Legitimacy, however, was precisely what Jews of that time actually sought to gain. In the American mind, the Great Mariner had evolved into the embodiment of the national ideal, a symbol of American achievement, progress, and goodness. By associating themselves with him, Jews sought symbolically to take upon themselves these same virtues, yoking together their Americanism and their Judaism, and demonstrating -- subversively, given standard narratives -- the historical indispensability of Jews to the whole American enterprise.(45)