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American Pharaohs

JL;DR SUMMARY Allan Arkush reviews Richard Kreitner's book "Fear No Pharaoh," which examines the complex and often uncomfortable role American Jews had in the institution of slavery. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

SlaveryAmerican JewsCivil WarJudah P. BenjaminAbolitionismRichard KreitnerAaron LopezErnestine RoseAugust Bondi

Places mentioned

New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
"my wife and I spent a memorable couple of days in New Orleans."
Newport, Rhode Island, United States
"neither Aaron Lopez nor any other Jewish slave trader in eighteenth-century Newport left a word of regret or discomfort about slavery."
New York, United States
"the charismatic Orthodox rabbi of Bnai Jeshurun, the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in New York, led a service in which he directly addressed the issue."
Louisiana, United States
"What is a slave? Benjamin asked in 1842, while trying a case before the Louisiana Supreme Court."
Buffalo, New York, United States
"Mordecai Manuel Noah, who, among other things, tried to found a colony for distressed Jews called Ararat on an island in the Niagara River near Buffalo as the first step to an eventual return to Palestine."
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
"After the failure of the Vienna Uprising in 1848, his family migrated to St. Louis."
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
"German-born, he was forty-six years old when he arrived in the United States to assume a pulpit in Baltimore."
Pennsylvania, United States
"friends convinced him to take refuge in nearby Pennsylvania."
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Cairo Item ID 48486
Cairo Source ID 11
Retrieved 2025-04-07 05:30:42 UTC
Curated 2025-04-07 08:31:39 UTC