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Alfred J. Kolatch
Publisher: Jonathan David
In 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant agreed to meet with communal leader Simon Wolf and a delegation of Jews at the White House. Upon hearing the group's plea that the president demand an immediate halt to the harsh treatment of Russian Jews, the American leader immediately fired off a letter to the czar. Wolf expressed his deep appreciation by inviting the president to be the godfather of his newly born son at the infant's forthcoming circumcision. Grant accepted, and Simon Wolf named his child Adolph Grant Wolf.
This is but one of the choice morsels of presidential history that David G. Dalin and Alfred J. Kolatch serve up in The Presidents of the United States & the Jews. Rabbi Dalin, a widely published American Jewish historian, and Rabbi Kolatch, bestselling author of The Jewish Book of Why, have meticulously mined the historical record, and here, for the first time, devote an entire work to the interactions between those who have held the most powerful elective office in the land and the relatively small but politically and socially active Jewish community. From Theodore Roosevelt's historic 1906 appointment of Oscar Straus as secretary of commerce and labor to Bill Clinton�s equally significant 1997 selection of Madeline Albright as secretary of state, this groundbreaking work presents fascinating biographical information on major Jewish appointees to Cabinet and sub-Cabinet positions, to the Supreme Court, as well as to ambassadorships throughout the world. It also documents the sometimes amicable, sometimes stormy relationships between the U.S. Chief Executives and the Jewish community at large. Beyond that, it reveals some of the little-known intimate dealings between U.S. presidents and prominent Jews of their day.
Written in a popular style for the lay reader, The Presidents of the United States & the Jews will inform, inspire, and occasionally amuse. Most important, however, it will add new perspective to the way in which we view and assess those who have served as leader of the Western world.
Available in hardcover |
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