Weren’t there many Jewish abolitionists?

Jews were almost entirely absent from the ranks of the abolitionists. So absent, in fact, that the abolitionists were miffed at their non-participation. The American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society Report of 1853:

1. “The Jews of the United States have never taken any steps whatever with regard to the slavery question. As citizens, they deem it their policy to have every one choose which ever side he may deem best to promote his own interests and the welfare of his country. They have no organization of an ecclesiastical body to represent their general views; no General Assembly, or its equivalent. The American Jews have two newspapers, but they do not interfere in any discussion which is not material to their religion. It cannot be said that the Jews have formed any denominational opinion on the subject of American slavery....The objects of so much mean prejudice and unrighteous oppression as the Jews have been for ages, surely they, it would seem, more than any other denomination, ought to be the enemies of caste, and friends of universal freedom.”
   

Another scholar summed it up this way: When it comes to Jewish abolitionists, they were “as rare as snail darters.” This is what Jewish author Eric Hirshler says of abolitionism:

1. “…the most burning issue was slavery. The Jewish citizens did not particularly distinguish themselves from the rest of the American nation in their attitude toward this difficult societal problem. …the abolitionist movement was more smoke than real strength. When it ventured into the political arena as the Liberal Party it received only 65,000 votes out of a total of 2,500,000 ballots cast.”
   

2. [See the story of a Jewish Abolitionist that wasn’t]
   

The Northern economy depended on the slave trade and the free labor of the Africans of the plantation South. Northern textile industries needed the cotton produced by Black hands, and the Northern manufacturers needed Southern buyers for their products. Northerners were no different from Southerners in their insistence that Africans were predestined to work for them; in fact, all social, political, and religious authorities in America reinforced this notion. The nasty historical truth is that there were only a pitiful few White abolitionists, and the majority of them wanted to end slavery for many reasons that had nothing to do with loving, or even liking, Black people.

For instance, the Union’s Brigadier General John Wolcott Phelps hoped the civil war would result in the abolition of slavery—and the exportation of the slaves:

1. “In order to stabilize and control the black population Phelps proposed the organization of blacks into military units and the establishment of a rigorous educational program for all slaves. At the end of hostilities he hoped to utilize his black troops as the vanguard of a black exodus to Africa for exploiting the ‘underdeveloped riches’ of the Dark Continent.”
   

Technically, Phelps was an “abolitionist,” but had no intention whatsoever in seeing Blacks share equal rights with White Americans—it was the very farthest thing from his mind. Many Whites were abolitionists because they wanted a truly all-White country and wanted all Blacks deported. Many, many White immigrants wanted slavery to end so that they could obtain a decent wage. Slavery depressed ALL wages and represented unfair competition for White workers. They were “abolitionists,” but they hated—and we mean HATED—Black people.

And, further, many White “abolitionists” would not even allow Blacks into their meetings. Those who were sympathetic to Blacks still felt Blacks were inferior—just not deserving of the cruelty of slavery. [It is much like wanting your neighbor to stop beating their dog—you don’t want to eat, sleep, or speak with the dog or allow him to marry your daughter—you just don’t think the dog deserves to be beaten.] Many abolitionists believed that Blacks would work better on the plantations under a low-wage system. Yet others believed that slavery must be ended to save White people’s souls from becoming condemned like God condemned Blacks’. All White abolitionists would have choked to death at the idea of a Black president. By far, most abolitionists were Blacks.