"We Have Not Yet Appointed a Hebrew"

A leading historian of American Judaism discusses Abraham Lincoln’s fascination with the Jews—and Jews’ fascination with Lincoln.

Wikimedia.

Wikimedia.
Observation
Jonathan Sarna and Meir Soloveichik
July 7 2016
About the authors

Jonathan Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun professsor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University and chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History. He has written, edited, or co-edited more than 30 books. The most recent, co-authored with Benjamin Shapell, is Lincoln and the Jews: a History.

Meir Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York and director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University.

At a conference in New York last year, the historian Jonathan Sarna spoke on the subject of his book Lincoln and the Jews. The full interview, conducted by Meir Soloveichik, is included in the just-released volume, What America Owes the Jews, What Jews Owe America. We present an edited excerpt of their conversation here:

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