It's GOOD to be Jewish...until GWB

[Iago]

                             PRESIDENTIAL FIRSTS

GEORGE WASHINGTON was the first President to write to a  synagogue.
In 1790 he  addressed separate letters to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, to Mikveh Israel Congregation in  Savannah, GA, and a joint letter to Congregation Beth Shalom, Richmond, VA, Mikveh  Israel Philadelphia, Beth Elohim, Charleston, S.  C., and Shearith Israel , New York . His letters  are an eloquent expression and hope for religious harmony and endure as indelible statements of the most fundamental tenets of American democracy.

THOMAS JEFFERSON was the first President to appoint a Jew to  a  Federal post. In 1801 he named  Reuben Etting of Baltimore as US Marshall for Maryland.

JAMES MADISON was the first President to appoint a Jew to a diplomatic post. He sent Mordecai M. Noah to Tunis from  1813 to
1816.
MARTIN VAN BUREN was the first President to order an American consul to intervene on  behalf of Jews abroad. In 1840 he instructed the U.S. consul in Alexandria, Egypt to use his good  offices to protect the Jews of Damascus who were  under attack because of a false blood ritual  accusation.

JOHN TYLER was the first President to nominate a U.S. consul  to Palestine . Warder Cresson, a Quaker convert  to Judaism who established a pioneer Zionist  colony, received the appointment in
1844.
FRANKLIN PIERCE was the first and probably the only President  whose name appears on the charter of a  synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in 1857 that amended the laws of the District  of Columbia to enable the  incorporation of the city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew Congregation.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the first President to make it possible  for rabbis to serve as military chaplains. He  did this by signing the
1862 Act of Congress  which changed the law that had previously barred all but Christian clergymen from the  captaincy. Lincoln was also the first, and happily the only President who was called upon to  revoke an official act of anti-Semitism by the  U.S. government. It was Lincoln who canceled  General Ulysses S Grant's "Order No. 11" expelling all Jews from Tennessee from the district controlled by his armies during the Civil War.  Grant always denied personal responsibility for  this act attributing it to his  subordinate.
ULYSSES S. GRANT was the first President to attend a  synagogue service while in office. When Adas  Israel Congregation in Washington D.C. was dedicated in 1874, Grant and all members of his  Cabinet were present.

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES was the first President to designate a  Jewish ambassador for the stated purpose of  fighting anti-Semitism. In
1870, he named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General to Romania.  Hays also was the first President to assure a  civil service employee her right to work for the  Federal government and yet observe the Sabbath. He ordered the employment of a Jewish woman who had been denied  a position in the Department of the Interior because of her refusal to work on Saturday.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT was the first President to appoint a Jew to  a presidential cabinet. In 1906 he named Oscar  S. Straus Secretary of Commerce and Labor.  Theodore Roosevelt was also the first President to contribute his own funds to a  Jewish cause. In 1919, when he received the  Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts while President to settle the Russo-Japanese War Roosevelt  contributed part of his prize to the National  Jewish Welfare Board
WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT was the first President to attend a Seder  while in office. In 1912, when he visited  Providence , RI, he participated in the family  Seder of Colonel Harry Cutler, first president of the National Jewish Welfare Board, in the Cutler home on Glenham Street .

WOODROW WILSON was the first President to nominate a Jew,  Louis Dembitz Brandeis, to the United States   Supreme Court. Standing firm against great  pressure to withdraw the nomination, Wilson insisted that he knew no one better qualified by judicial temperament as well as legal and social  understanding, con firmation was finally voted by the Senate on June  1, 1916. Wilson was also the first President to publicly endorse a national Jewish  philanthropic campaign. In a letter to Jacob Schiff, on November 22, 1917, Wilson called for wide support of  the United Jewish Relief Campaign which was  raising funds for European War relief.

WARREN HARDING was the first President to sign a Joint Congressional Resolution endorsing  the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate supporting the establishment in Palestine of a national Jewish home for the Jewish people. The resolution was  signed September 22, 1922 .

CALVIN COOLIDGE was the first President to participate in the dedication of a Jewish community institution that was  not a house of worship. On  May 3, 1925, he helped dedicate the cornerstone of the Washington, D.C. Jewish Community center.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT was  the first President to be given a Torah as a  gift. He received a miniature Torah from Young Israel and another that had been rescued from a burning synagogue in  Czechoslovakia . Both are now in the Roosevelt  Memorial Library in Hyde Park. The Roosevelt  administration's failure to expand the existing refuge quota system, ensured that large numbers of Jews would  ultimately become some of the Holocaust's six million victims. Fifty-six years after  Roosevelt's death, the arguments continue over  Roosevelt's response to the Holocaust.

HARRY S. TRUMAN , on May 14, 1948 , just eleven minutes after Israel 's proclamation of  independence, was the first head of a government to announce to the press that "the United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the  new state of Israel ." Tr  uman was also th e first U.S President to receive a president of Israel at the White House, Chaim Weizman, in 1948 and an Ambassador from Israel  , Eliahu Elat in 1948. With Israel staggering under the burdens of mass immigration  in 1951-1952, President Truman obtained from Congress close to $140 million in loans and  grants.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER was the first President to participate in  a coast-to-coast TV program sponsored by a  Jewish organization. It was a network show in 1954 celebrating the 300th anniversary of  the American Jewish community. On this occasion  he said that it was one of the enduring  satisfactions of his life that he was privileged to lead the forces of the free world which finally crushed the  brutal regime in Germany , freeing the remnant of  Jews for a new life and hope in  Israel .
JOHN F. KENNEDY named two Jews to his cabinet - Abra ham Ribicoff as < BR Secretary of Health, Education  and Welfare, and Arthur Goldberg as Secretary of Labor. Kennedy was the only President for  whom a national Jewish Award was named The  annual peace award of the Synagogue Council of  America was re-named the John F. Kennedy Peace Award after his assassination in 1963

JIMMY CARTER in a number of impassioned speeches, stated his concern for human rights and  stressed the right of Russian Jews to emigrate. He is credited with being the person  responsible for the Camp David Accords.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH in 1985 as  Vice President had played a personal role in "Operation Joshua," the airlift which brought 10,000  Jews out of Ethiopia directly to resettlement in  Israel. Then, again in 1991, when Bush was  President, American help played a critical role in "Operation Solomon", the escape of 14,000 more E thiopian Jews. Most dramatically, Bush got to the U.N. to revoke its 1975 "Zionism is  Racism" resolution.

Consider the last two officeholders
BILL CLINTON appointed more Jews to his cabinet than all of  the previous presidents combined and put Ruth  Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, both 1st appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter,  on the Supreme Court.

GEORGE W. BUSH is the first president since Herbert Hoover who has no Jews in his cabinet at all and has appointed no Jews to the  Federal bench.

[bwv 1080]

Jefferson Davis was the first president to appoint a Jewish cabinet member (Judah Benjamin as Attorney General)

He even made it on the currency:

[Bunny]

Why does this surprise you?  I'm glad that there aren't more Jews associated with his administration.  We are lucky that he didn't appoint Wolfowitz Sec Def; Wolf wanted that or National Security in 2005, but he was too identified with the failures of the Iraq war so they shuttled him to the World Bank.  The rest is history. 

[Josquin des Prez]

I'm glad i wasn't born Jewish. Judging by Iago's posting habits it must be the most boring ethnicity on the planet...

[Bunny]

I'm glad i wasn't born Jewish. Judging by Iago's posting habits it must be the most boring ethnicity on the planet...

No more boring than Italian, Greek, Russian, Irish, German, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Serbian, Syrian, Austrian, German, Belgian, Dutch, Montenegrin, Albanian, Turkish, etc.

It's just that people frequently discriminate against Jews.  Would you have written that you are glad you weren't born black if he had posted how someone didn't appoint African-Americans to his cabinet?

[Cato]

Theodore Roosevelt preferred Americans without hyphens.  Once you are here and a citizen, you are an American, no prefixes and hyphens needed.

[karlhenning]

Does there have to be a [member of ethnic group x.] on every president's cabinet?  I ask only for information.

[karlhenning]

Theodore Roosevelt preferred Americans without hyphens.  Once you are here and a citizen, you are an American, no prefixes and hyphens needed.

Oh, I'm not telling my violist friend so! 

[Redbeard]

GEORGE W. BUSH is the first president since Herbert Hoover who has no Jews in his cabinet at all and has appointed no Jews to the  Federal bench.

This particular urban legend doesn't seem to have been noticed by Snopes yet.  However, a quick google can easily disprove the statement.  Michael Chertoff is a member of the cabinet as Secretary of Homeland Security, and is also Jewish. 

[bwv 1080]

Interesting story, he was the second Jewish senator and potentially was the first Jewish Supreme Court Justice

(From Wiki)

Judah Philip Benjamin (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was an American politician and lawyer, who served as a representative in the Louisiana state legislature, as U.S. Senator for Louisiana, in three successive Cabinet posts in the government of the Confederate States of America, and as a distinguished barrister and Queen's Counsel in England. He was the second Jew (after David Levy Yulee of Florida) to serve as a U.S. Senator and the first in the Cabinet of a North American government, and had the opportunity to be the first Jewish nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, though he declined the position.


In 1833 Benjamin made a strategic marriage to Natalie St. Martin, of a prominent New Orleans Creole family; the marriage does not seem to have been a happy one. He became a slave owner and established a sugar plantation in Belle Chasse, Louisiana... In 1850 he sold his plantation and its 150 slaves; he never again owned any slaves.


By 1852, Benjamin's reputation as an eloquent speaker and subtle legal mind was sufficient to win him selection by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate. Also, the outgoing President, Millard Fillmore of the Whig Party, offered to nominate Benjamin to fill a Supreme Court vacancy after the Senate Democrats had defeated Fillmore's other nominees for that post, and the New York Times reported (on February 15, 1853) that "if the President nominates Benjamin, the Democrats are determined to confirm him." But, Benjamin declined to be nominated. He took office as a Senator on March 4, 1853. During his first year as a Senator, he challenged another young Senator, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, to a duel over a perceived insult on the Senate floor; Davis apologized, and the two began a close friendship.

He quickly gained a reputation as one of the great orators of the Senate, and in 1854 Franklin Pierce offered him nomination to a seat on the Supreme Court, which he declined. He was a noted advocate of the interests of the South, and his most famous exchange on the Senate floor was related to both his religion and the issue of slavery: Benjamin Wade of Ohio accused him of being an "Israelite in Egyptian clothing," and he replied that, "It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain."

He was again selected to serve as Senator for the term beginning in 1859, but this time as a Democrat. During the 34th through 36th Congresses he was chairman of the Committee on Private Land Claims. Benjamin resigned his seat on February 4, 1861, after the secession of Louisiana from the Union.

Davis appointed Benjamin to be the first Attorney General of the Confederacy on February 25, 1861, remarking later that he chose him for the position because he "had a very high reputation as a lawyer, and my acquaintance with him in the Senate had impressed me with the lucidity of his intellect, his systematic habits, and capacity for labor." Benjamin has been often referred to as "the Brains of the Confederacy."

[JoshLilly]

In all seriousness, they make up what percentage of the US population? I hardly find this shocking. The Cabinet is only so big, this is hardly abnormal. Rather, the abnormality goes in the other direction (which is not a bad thing by any means, just statistically unusual).

Probably the most glaring statistical abnormality is the overwhelming number of men appointed to the cabinet, considering the human worldwide population is, what, 52% female? I assume the US population is similar. People can start giving every explanation under the sun for this, yes yes, of course. But that doesn't mean it's not out of the expected statistical norm based on population. These things happen.

[bwv 1080]

In all seriousness, they make up what percentage of the US population? I hardly find this shocking. The Cabinet is only so big, this is hardly abnormal. Rather, the abnormality goes in the other direction (which is not a bad thing by any means, just statistically unusual).

According to Wikipedia, 2% of the US population is Jewish and the US has 41% of the worlds Jews (a higher proportion than Israel)

[JoshLilly]

Well then, the unthinking expectation would be 2% of Cabinet posts would be thus filled, at least in the last few decades. Due to the small number of cabinet posts relative to the population, I don't think it can be close to exactly 2%, but has anyone ever tried to tally it up? Or start from a certain year and go from there, like, 1960- present?

[Iago]

I'm glad i wasn't born Jewish. Judging by Iago's posting habits it must be the most boring ethnicity on the planet...

I'm glad you weren't born Jewish as well.
Your remark is very thinly veiled anti-semitism.

[oyasumi]

ZZZZZzzzzzz.....

[mahlertitan]

Theodore Roosevelt preferred Americans without hyphens.  Once you are here and a citizen, you are an American, no prefixes and hyphens needed.

agree, agree, agree..

[dtwilbanks]

I married one!   

[Josquin des Prez]

I'm glad you weren't born Jewish as well.
Your remark is very thinly veiled anti-semitism.

Actually, my remark was open anti-Iagism. But in all fairness, culturally, Jews are a rather stuffy bunch, you gotta admit. Between reading the Torah and constantly slapping people with that anti-semitism card, life has to grow stale after a while. At least the Muslims get to behead somebody every now and then... 

[SonicMan46]

I married one!   

LOL -    I was brought up Catholic, married a Jewish girl from New Jersey (met at the U of Michigan) - much closer to her family than mine; brought up our son in a Unitarian Fellowship (which was quite liberal) - never a problem -   

[Joe_Campbell]

This particular urban legend doesn't seem to have been noticed by Snopes yet.  However, a quick google can easily disprove the statement.  Michael Chertoff is a member of the cabinet as Secretary of Homeland Security, and is also Jewish. 

Did anyone even read this? It completely invalidates the thread.