56 Friday, March 26, 1976
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
A Bicentennial Feature
se8
Thomas Kennedy's Fight for Maryland's Jews
MR. ETTING Is RIGHT! WE JEWS
ARE THUS DEPRIVED OF CITIZENSHIP /
TN 1797, IN MARYLAND, SOLOMON ETTING,
BERNARD GRATZ, AND OTHER PROMINENT
JEWS OF BALTIMORE CAME BEFORE THE
LEGISLATURE... f
! OUR CONSTITUTION REQUIRES "BELIEF !N
THE CHRISTIAN RELIGtON" FOR HOLDING
PUBLIC OFFICE!
„,
(Editor's note: The cartoon at left, from Morris Epstein's "A Pic-
ture Parade of Jewish History," and the following essay by Dr. Ep-
stein are re-printed from The Jewish News, March 18, 1966 in honor of
America's Bicentennial.)
A VOTE WAS TAKEN TO CHANGE THE
CONSTITUTION. AFTERWARD. • .
THEY TRAVELED TO THE WESTERN PART OF THE
STATE TO MEET A YOUNG STATE SENATOR.
I WAS BORN IN
WE HAVE HEARD OF YOUR
SCOTLAND 1N '76, THE
LIBERAL VIEWS,
YEAR OF FREEDOM!
MR. KENNEDY.
I'M A PRESBYTERIAN WILL YOU
AND I BELIEVE THAT TAKE UP
EVERY CITIZEN MAY OUR CAUSE,
WORSHIP GOD IN His MR. KENNEDY?
OWN WAY!
THERE ARE BUT A FEW JEWS IN
MARYLAND. BUT IF THERE WERE
ONLY ONE, WE WOULD OWE
WITH YOU,
HIM JUSTICE!
GENTLEMEN!
!‘,
y di
vb,
BUT AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION
HAD TO PASS TWO TIMES! HI5 ENEMIES
WENT TO KENNEDY'S HOME COUNTY...
BILL TO
EXTRA/ EXTRA/
MAKE JEWS FULL CITIZENS
PASSES LEGISLATURE!
•
I THANK YOU FOR RE-ELECTING
ME —AND THUS VOTING FOR
THE PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH I
STAND./
KENNEDY KEPT HI5 WORD. ON FEB. 28, 182.6...
MR. KENNEDY'S AMENDMENT
HA5 BEEN CARRIED!
AMERICANS OF THE JEWISH A RELIGIOUS
FAITH THANK YOU, TEST CAN
NEVER PRODUCE
MR. KENNEDY!
HAPPY RESULTS.
THAT IS WHY
I FOUGHT!
PASSED FOR THE 2ND TIME, IT NOW
BECAME A LAW!
This cartoon is reproduced from "A Picture Parade of Jewish History" by Morris Epstein
published by Shengold Publishers, by arrangement with the author and publishers.
We take for granted the idea of religious freedom in America. But
matters were not always so, and the process by which American Jews
achieved religious liberty was often a difficult one.
In Maryland, one of the original I 3 colonies, it was a Scotch Presbyter-
ian who fought the battle for every man to worship God in his own way and
still be a full citizen.
The Maryland constitution of 1776 required "a declaration of a belief
in the Christian religion" for holding office in the state. In 1797 Solomon
Etting, his father-in-law Bernard Gratz, and other prominent Jews of Bal-
timore petitioned the legislature to change this law.
Etting and Gratz spoke up stoutly, recalling the role Maryland's
15 Jewish families had played in the American Revolution and poirt .
out, among other facts, that Jacob Hart, a Baltimore merchant,
raised $10,000 for Lafayette's soldiers. The bill was brought up in tne
legislature time and again but it failed to pass until Thomas Kennedy
took up the fight.
Born in Scotland in 1776, Kennedy had come to Maryland in 1811. He
did not live in Baltimore where about 150 Jews than resided, but in the
western part of the state.
His own feelings on the subject were very clearly stated:
"There are scarcely any Jews in the country from which I come and
I have but the barest acquaintance with any Jews in the world. There are
few Jews in the United States; in Maryland there are very few, but if there
were only one, to that one we ought to do justice. A religious test can never
be productive of any good effect. It may prevent the honest and conscien-
tious from accepting an office, but the wicked and ambitious will not be
stopped by so feeble a barrier."
The bill to make Jews full citizens was proposed as an amendment to
the state constitution. An amendment had to pass two sessions of the legis-
lature. .It passed in 1822 for the first time. But in the next election, the
fight was carried into Kennedy's home country. He was defeated for re-
election and his "Jew bill," as it was called, failed with him.
In 1826 he campaigned for the "Jew bill" and was victorious. He ther-
eupon introduced the bill into the legislature and proudly saw it carried for
a second time. He had been bitterly opposed and he had fought only for the
Jews, for_all Christians, including Catholics and Quakers, were already full
citizens in Maryland.
In gratitude to Kennedy, the Jews of Maryland later erected a monu-
ment in his honor in Hagerstown, Md.
Thomas Kennedy of Maryland, sincere worker for the advancement of
man, deserves to be remembered because of his dedicated service on behalf
of religious liberty.
British Duplicity in Arab Boycott Fought by Gentile Group
.
By S. A. BARRAM
LONDON — Unlike the
American Jewish Congress,
which has filed several suits
against U.S. officials in the
Arab boycott situation,
British Jewry has not chal-
lenged its government for
its discrimination against
Jewish firms and employes
who have been blackballed
by Arab governments.
The Daily Telegraph, a
leading British newspaper,
reported that the Depart-
ment of Trade and the For-
eign Office both encourage
collaboration with the Arab
boycott.
The Arab central office of
boycott and the individual
national boycott offices de-
mand that firms produce
certificates of "racial pur-
ity", declarations that their
goods are neither wholly nor
partly Israeli, and that the
company in question has no
prominent Zionists on the
board and rio members of
the board belong to the joint
Foreign/Israel Chambers of
Commerce. For the pur
poses of Arab boycott, no
differentiation is made be-
tween Jew and Zionist.
Notary declarations of
"racial purity" are au-
thenticated by the British
Foreign Office. Thus, the
government has become a
willing collaborator in an
act of racial discrimina-
tion. The Foreign Office
rejects the accusation with
the rather peculiar argu-
ment that the counter-sig7 have produced a "Mafia-
nature on the certificate like" state of fear and sil-
does not "involve impro- ence among Jewish execu-
tives and employes.
per aid of the boycott."
According to the Guard-
In recent major interna-
tional financing operations, ian, this organization is
S. G. Warburg, N. M. Roths- pressing for a Freedom of
child 'and other leading Information Act, which if
banks with Jewish directors enacted, would open govern-
have been excluded from un- ment files for public inspec-
derwriting a loan to the tion_ so that details of dis-
Marubeni- Japanese group, crimination would be easier
to prove.
which is backed by Arabs.
Dr. Jacob Gewirtz, direc-
British Leyland, the lead-
ing auto manufacturer in tor of the Jewish Board of
Deputies' defense commit-
the United Kingdom, has
been blacklisted because of tee in Britain, questioned by
its business with Israel and the Guardian after the accu-
the firm gave in to the boy- sations had been tabled
cott. These-are only a few with the Race Relations
Board, stated: "The Foreign
examples. Reportedly, the
boycott list, issued in Da- Office is -giving its services
for immoral purposes, but I
mascus, has 1,000 British
would not say it is commit-
firms on it.
In spite of this, organized
British Jewry did not ini-
tiate any legal steps against
racial discrimination, al-
BY JOSEPH POLAKOFF
though the law provides pro-
(Copyright 1976, JTA, Inc.)
tection against racial dis-
crimination, even in cases _ "Kochlefel" is now part of
America's political jargon.
which involve the Crown.
Another group has de- It emerged in front-page
cided to fight our case, news in connection with
Florida's hot Presidential
where we failed by ommis-
sion. The National Society primary campaign when
for Crime Reduction and political analysts discovered
Social Justice, sponsored the "kochlefels" in the Jew-
by the Church of Scientol- ish communities that have
ogy, filed a complaint with burgeoned in the 80-mile
the Race Relations Board stretch between Miami
on March 1, against the Beach and Palm Beach,
Foreign Office and the known as "the Gold Coast."
What is a kochlefel? Tech-
Department of Trade for
co-operating in the Arab nically, it's a spoon or ladle
boycott, which was said to used to stir the food in a pot.
ting discrimination. Dis-
crimination involves some
conscious act."
Those who are familiar
with the attitude of British
Foreign Office senior offi-
cials towards Israel over the
last 30 years believe that the
discrimination was in-
tended and quite conscious.
There was hardly a Bri-
tish government in the last
three decades in which
senior civil servants were
not outspoken anti-Israel
and pro-Arab, starting
with Ernest Bevin, the
British Foreign Secretary
prior to the 1948 War for
Independence, who be-
came infamous for his an-
ti-immigration policy to
Palestine and support of
the Arabs.
Others include Lord Carl
dogan, Christopher Mayhew
— the spokesman of the
Arabs in Parliament, as
well as Nuttings and David
Ennals, both avowed Arab-
philes.
With the increasing Arab
financial penetration of the
West, such as the invest-
ment of $1.4 billion in U.S.
shares during 1975 and the
available $42 billion surplus
of the OPEC oil producing
states, which by 1980 should
reach a $200 billion surplus
for investment, the Arab
countries will be able to ex-
ert.. even greater political
and economic pressure on
the West.
Seen in this context, the
point made by the London
Jewish Chronicle, March 5,
was particularly well taken;
"At the end of the day, it is
not really a Jewish (or Is-
raeli) issue at all. The ques-
tion of the role played by
the government in the fur-
therance of the boycott is
really a test of the meaning
of democracy: whether for
money, or the prospect of
money, the government can
be coerced into abandoning
the freedom of the individ-
ual to trade, to employ or to
be employed.
"Freedom, as Solzhenit-
syn reminded us, is indivisi-
ble and 'one has to take a
moral attitude towards it'.
It is time, in this one small
but testing instance, for the
British government to take
a moral attitude." -
Florida `Kochlefels' Stir Republican Area
Politically, a kochlefel is a
stirrer, too.
The three Gold Coast
counties — Dade, Broward
and Palm Beach — are
growing rapidly and the
Jewish element within that
development is rated the
largest, according to Lyle
Deniston of the Washington
Star who surveyed the Gold
Coast in advance of the pri-
mary. He gave the following
example of that growth:
"Five years ago, the
Fort Lauderdale Jewish
Federation estimates, the
northern half- of Broward
had only 5,000 Jews in it.
That was the part of the
county dominated by the
Republicans; now, there
are 60,000 Jews in the
same sector; nearly half
are 55-years old or olfer.
There is no question that
they are Democrats, over-
whelmingly.
Who are the kochlefels?
Well, there is John Leban,
77, the retired Schenley ex-
ecutive who is Democratic
chairman in..Broward: or
Harry Bilawsky, 71, a re-
tired newspaper-magazine
distributor from Brooklyn,
who is chairman of
Cresthaven Democr
Club in Lake Worth, or
car Sindell, also 77, and a
power in Broward. They all
agree that the "Jewish vote"
is never in anybody's pocket.
Deniston observed the
retirement villages are
generally shaping up Flor-
ida issues in many ways.
"The so-called 'Jewish is-
sues' — aid to Israel and ef-
forts to protect Soviet Jews
— still count, but not neces-
sarily decisively, many ob-
servers here argue," Denis-
ton reported.