How the Jewish Bible Shaped Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln Shaped American Jewry https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/history-ideas/2022/07/how-the-jewish-bible-shaped-abraham-lincoln-and-lincoln-shaped-american-jewry/

July 1, 2022 | Jonathan Sarna
About the author: 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.

According to his widow, Abraham Lincoln’s last words were “How I should like to visit Jerusalem sometime.” Although some historians contest her account, the leading scholar of American Jewish history, Jonathan Sarna, finds it entirely credible, as the sixteenth president was both a friend of the Jews and a devoted and careful reader of the Bible. Sarna, in conversation with Ari Lamm, discusses both aspects of Lincoln’s legacy. The conversation concludes with an anecdote about how a prominent U.S. rabbi was dubbed “the ayatollah of the Jews.”

Read more on Good Faith Effort: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jonathan-sarna-lincoln-and-the-bible/id1536163226?i=1000567937556