Did any Achronim comment on the American Revolutionary or Civil Wars?

Question

I've heard that for instance, in the 1800s, the American rabbis in the South were pro-slavery, and the American rabbis in the North opposed to it. But what were the views towards America of the more-famous "Acharonim", rabbis from (in this case) the 1700s and 1800s, who are famous for their writings?

Did, say, the Noda Bihuda or Vilna Gaon comment (as an aside in any of their writings?) on the American Revolution?

Did R' Hirsch, the Netziv, Malbim, the Rebbe Maharash, Ben Ish Chai , or other great rabbinic thinkers of the 1800s (pick your flavor of Orthodoxy) comment on American slavery and/or the Civil War? (As Dostoevsky did, lehavdil?)

Was the development of the United States of America really "on the map" of these rabbis?

I realize that censorship may have been an issue in some cases, too.

Answer 1

Rabbi Yissachar Dov Illowy (Rabbi Dr. Bernard Illowy), a talmid of the Ksav Sofer, was the Rav of New Orleans at the time of the Civil War, and commented favorably on the right of the Confederacy to secede from the Union. For more information about him, see:

Bernard Illowy (Wikipedia)

and

"The Biblical View of Slavery, Then and Now: In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation," by Yaakov S. Weinstein, in Hakirah.

I believe Marc Shapiro has some source material about this as well, though I have been unable to locate it as of this writing.

Answer 2

I have heard - though I don't know of any written source for this - that the Divrei Chaim, R' Chaim of Sanz (1793-1876), was critical of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (or maybe more generally of his anti-slavery stance), seeing it as flouting Noach's prophecy as recorded in Gen. 9:25.

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Apparently I had my facts doubly wrong:

• This statement is attributed not to the Divrei Chaim, but to his son R. Yechezkel of Shinova (1813-1898) (as Yirmiyahu pointed out in his comment).

• It is said that R. Yitzchak (Itzik'l) of Pshevorsk retold this story after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. However, this post states that the present Pshevorsker Rebbe, R. Leibish, denied that his grandfather ever said any such thing.

Answer 3

Haym Solomon in a teshuva of the Pnei Aryeh

Haym Solomon of Philadelphia in an 18th century Dutch responsum.

also see here

The prayer service of Rabbi Nosson Adler's rebbe Rabbi David Tevele Schiff, printed in London 1793.

Answer 4

The guru of such American Jewish history questions is Jonathan Sarna:

Jews and the Civil War: A Reader

The American Jewish Experience

American Judaism: A History

Basically, at the time there were only a handful of rabbis in the whole country and none of them of any serious stature. Similarly, the other primary country affected by these events was England, but the Jewish community was very small at the time, especially considering that Jews were only allowed to naturalize as citizens by the Jewish Naturalization Act 1753.

Can't speak to any of the rabbinic figures elsewhere in Europe, but I would agree with prior assessments that it wasn't a burning issue of the day for the average shtetl-goer.

Answer 5

R. Hayyim Joseph David Azulai twice refers to the American Revolution in his diary. Both times he is talking about the negative effect the war was having on the finances of Jews in Amsterdam who had money invested in the London markets. He does not discuss whether the goals of the war itself were good or bad.

In the entry for March 9th, 1778 he wrote:

And all this when times were uncertain, and they were all suffering hardship because their activities were in shares and their capital was in London where the markets were at rock bottom — for London was in chaos as a result of the war of the Americanos who had rebelled.

(Cymerman translation)

In the entry for March 25th, 1778 he wrote:

At this time, with the English in so much trouble and involved with wars in America where they had rebelled against them, and Spain and France also in trouble, the Company [shares] had dropped to 150 and all the others from 100 to 60: this is a terrible loss.

(Cymerman translation)

Answer 6

Doubt he would be considered an Acharon by most standard but this is what Shir - Shlomo Yehudah Rapaport writes:

Further, at a time when the nations of Europe and America have recognized the evils of intolerance and have accepted the right of freedom of speech, how can Jews keep to the medieval ideas of hatred against all who think differently than themselves. It is only by recognizing and accepting the good laws of the nations that the Jews can become “a wise and understanding nation” as described in the Torah (Devarim 4:6).

pg. 120 - R’ Shlomo Yehuda Rapoport (Shir)

Answer 7

Ariel, thanks for the call out to my shiurim. This has lately been an interest of mine and soon I hope there will be posted two additional shiurim about R' Avraham Rice who also lived at that time. While I do not (yet) know of any 'classic' acharonim who commented on the Civil War anyone interested in the subject should take a look at R' Illowy's Milchamos Elokim (written by his son and available at http://hebrewbooks.org) and various articles from the Jewish periodical from that time called the Occident (which is available and searchable on a wonderful website http://jewish-history.com). There is also the 'Fast Day Sermon' given by R' M.J. Raphall (which is also found on that website and who was the first rabbi of NYs Bnai Jeshurun Congregation) permitting slavery, but not as it was practiced in the South, and agreeing with the right to secede (I talk about this in one of the classes). I'll be happy to update this if I find anything else interesting...

Answer 8

Not really an acharon, but Moses Mendelssohn had a favorable attitude towards the ideas behind the American Revolution, see The Philosophical Roots of Moses Mendelssohn's Plea for Emancipation. "That he closely followed the events across the Atlantic is obvious from a footnote at the end of Jerusalem: 'Alas, now even the Congress in America rehashes the old slogan and speaks of a dominant religion.' This remark clearly shows that until this latest news reached him he had been greatly encouraged by the American example. He may have guessed that the setback was only a temporary affair. In the very year in which Mendelssohn wrote Jerusalem (1782), Thomas Jefferson wrote his Notes on Virginia, in which he expressed the view that a variety of religious opinions was in the best interests of progress and freedom; that the legitimate powers of government extended only to such acts as were injurious to others; and that nobody was injured by his neighbor's religious beliefs" (p. 200). See also Religious Liberty: The Congruence of Thomas Jefferson and Moses Mendelssohn. Another maskil/rabbi who took a favorable attitude toward the religious freedom promulgated by the Founding Fathers was R. Nachman Krochmal--see here for a fascinating illustration.

Answer 9

Barnett Elzas in his book "The Jews of South Carolina", pg. 219, wrote:

"The breaking out of the war [the Civil War] and the removal from the city of many of its members, however, put an end to its prosperity and caused the Synagogue to close its doors. Neither Congregation was now able to stand along and the way was thus paved for reconciliation and amalgamation. Of this we shall tell in a later chapter.

And he adds in a footnote:

"There is an interesting reference in the literature that probably belongs to this period. Naphtali Zevi Judah Berlin (1817-1893), the chief of the rabbinical school at Volozhin, was consulted by a Charleston Rabbi as to whether minors or Sabbath breakers might be included in the making of a Minyan (religious quorum of ten men). His answer, rather unfavorable to both, is to be found in his volume of Responsa Meshibh Dabar (Warsaw, 1894), Part 1, No. 9, p. 15. It bears no date."

While the Netziv himself doesn't refer directly to the Civil War, Elzas believed that this tshuvah can be dated to the time of the war and is referring to the situation in which there weren't enough congregants in the Charleston shul for a minyan.