We read a lot of stories from Jewish chaplains in the US army and how they served, and what they did, the Jewish soldiers they encountered, in all sorts of parts of the world...

I was not previously aware of this, but I just discovered, according to a book I am reading, that until Abraham Lincoln came along, only Christians could be chaplains in the US army.

Abraham Lincoln is known for bringing about an end to slavery and the emancipation of blacks, now known as African Americans. In reality, Lincoln was about emancipation of everybody from racial discrimination.

Upon encouragement from a Rabbi Arnold Fischel, President Abraham Lincoln was made aware of the law allowing only Christians as chaplains in the US Army. When Lincoln found out about this law, he moved immediately to have it changed, and was successful. This process began in 1861 ad was completed in 1862.

Due to Lincoln's involvement, and Rabbi Fischel's raising of the issue, the law was changed and now Jewish servicemen are able to get the religious leadership and direction they were not able to at one time. And it was not just Jews, but anybody besides Christians were in the same situation, until Lincoln.

And since then, we have Jewish chaplains who provide a tremendous service, to Jewish servicemen, but also to the US Army, as stories tell of the heroism and their dedication to the troops.

I was not aware of this until now, so I thought I'd share this piece of history.

I am from Chicago. That means I grew up with tv that consisted of such greats like Jerry Springer and Geraldo Rivera (both of whom happen to be Jewish) with all their theatrics such as full blown brawls (including chair throwing on Springer, and I remember once Geraldo got his nose broken on tv) on the set.

I remember Geraldo had this big scoop on Al Capone. They located his safe underground. Rivera was going to open the safe, on live tv, and expose what Capone had hidden. He expected it to contain all the evidence the cops and feds had always been looking for proving the various crimes Capone had been involved in. Either that or bodies or hidden money and gold.

It turned out, after an excruciatingly long program, they eventually got to the safe and opened it. The end is famous, as the safe held nothing but debris and some old cans.

In what could have been a similar fiasco, but on a much smaller scale, the curators of the Smithsonian opened and inspected Abe Lincoln's pocketwatch.

Legend had it that there was an inscription inside the watch, but it had never been opened and nobody had ever seen it except for the watchmaker who spoke about it.
So they opened it up and inspected it, on video but only being watched by meuseum workers.

Some excerpts:

"The moment of truth has come. Is there or is there not an inscription?" Thomas said, teasing the audience, which gasped when he confirmed it was there. He called Stiles up to read his ancestor's words, drawing smiles and a few sighs of relief.

"Like Pearl Harbor or 9/11, this was the reaction he had (to the Civil War,)" Stiles said of the inscription.

Later, Stiles said he felt closer to the 16th president.

"My gosh, that was Lincoln's watch," he said, "and my ancestor put graffiti on it!"

"Jonathan Dillon April 13 - 1861," part of the inscription reads, "Fort Sumpter (sic) was attacked by the rebels on the above date." Another part reads, "Thank God we have a government."

Dillon had a fuzzy recollection of what he had engraved. He told the newspaper he had written: "The first gun is fired. Slavery is dead. Thank God we have a president who at least will try."

Fascinating.

Was Abraham Lincoln Jewish?

I doubt it, but there are such theories.

Hamodia ran a piece last week about Abraham Lincoln possibly being Jewish. They raised all sorts of circumstantial evidence which, they say, indicate his affiliation to the Jewish people.

Such evidence includes letters of correspondence between him and people of the Hebrew faith, assistance he provided as President to issues of concern to people of the Hebrew faith, the lack of any clear religion in his background, and a town in England named Lincoln that at some point had a sizable Jewish population.

They offered no real proofs to the suggestion.

They did not claim that Abraham Lincoln hailed from Lincoln, England. They simply mentioned the town in England with some of its Jewish history.

They did not show that Lincoln assisted and tried to solve requests by Jews any more than requests by other people. They simply showed examples of Jews having made requests of Lincoln and his responding positively.

They did not show that Lincoln corresponded more with Jews than with people of other faiths. They simply mentioned that he corresponded with Jews, and brought some examples of such correspondence. I will assume (rightly or wrongly) that he also corresponded with people of other faiths. If he corresponded with a Mormon would that prove (or even indicate) that he was a Mormon? Would correspondence with Muslims make him a Muslim? etc.

As President of the United States of America, and preceding that as an aspiring to the presidency, it is likely there were plenty of people of all faiths who sent letters to him. Many of these letters would have contained requests of assistance on various matters of concern. Like any politician he would have tried to help when he could.


To use such baseless evidence as possible proof of Lincoln's Jewishness is a disgrace and an embarrassment. The Hamodia newspaper is treating its readers as morons and people lacking intelligence.