The Second Vermont Republic's Rob Williams Has Another Reason to Hate Lincoln - The Jews

I first learned of the Second Vermont Republic's Rob Williams when I heard him prattle on about the Lincoln historical revisionism of a neo-Confederate by the name of Thomas DiLorenzo on a local radio program back in 2007. Williams, an adjunct staff member at Burlington's Champlain College, was challenged for presenting "academic nonsense" on the program, and nonsense it was. Rob is a longtime sufferer of Lincoln derangement syndrome.

Lincoln Derangement Syndrome (n): "A deeply-embedded psychosis held by some Lost Causers and defenders of Southern Heritage™, indicated by the reflexive, knee-jerk response to any criticism of the Confederacy, by pointing out that (1) Abraham Lincoln held personal views about African Americans that were racist, (2) the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free any slaves, or (3) that Lincoln’s public policy position toward the institution of slavery changed over time. There is no known cure."

But now Williams has a new reason for his hatred; Lincoln's relationship with Jews. Followers of this blog know that I have exposed repeated instances of anti-Semitic posts at Williams' SVR hateblog by his stable of anti-Semitic hatebloggers Carol Moore, Dennis "Hit List" Morrisseau and Jacqueline Brook, to name only a few (and, no, I don't link to his hatesite any longer). In a post this past week at the Lincoln Institute we learn:

New Exhibit on Lincoln and Jewish Americans

The New-York Historical Society’s newest exhibit, “Lincoln and the Jews,” is an exploration of Lincoln’s personal relationships with his Jewish contemporaries and his impact on nineteenth-century Jewish life in America. The New York Times covered the exhibit in a recent article:

"Lincoln played an important role in turning Jews from outsiders in America to insiders,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University and the author, with Mr. Shapell, of the new, separately published book “Lincoln and the Jews,” which inspired the show. “It’s a subject that has really been overlooked.” "Lincoln’s lifetime coincided with a dramatic increase in America’s Jewish population, which grew from about 3,000 in 1809, the year of his birth, to roughly 150,000 in 1860. Growing up in the Midwest, he probably encountered few or no Jews in person until he became a young man. But at a time when anti-Semitism and nativism ran high, the show notes, there is no evidence of Lincoln harboring any animus toward Jews."

The Times story continues:

"Lincoln’s lifetime coincided with a dramatic increase in America’s Jewish population, which grew from about 3,000 in 1809, the year of his birth, to roughly 150,000 in 1860. Growing up in the Midwest, he probably encountered few or no Jews in person until he became a young man. But at a time when anti-Semitism and nativism ran high, the show notes, there is no evidence of Lincoln harboring any animus toward Jews."

“When it came to personal interactions with Jews or issues that had an impact on Jews, Lincoln did the right thing on every occasion,” Harold Holzer, a prominent Lincoln scholar and the exhibition’s chief historian, said in an interview."


"Lincoln, the exhibition shows, did much for Jews, individually and as a group. But just how affected was Lincoln by his encounters with them?"

"Deeply, Mr. Sarna argues. The encounters, he writes in the book, helped push Lincoln past a “parochially Christian” understanding of American identity. In what he called his “most controversial claim,” not made by the show, Mr. Sarna writes that the ecumenical phrase “this nation, under God” in the Gettysburg Address may have been meant as a “silent homage” to Jews who fell on the battlefield, one that “reimagined America in language that embraced Jews as equals.”

So much to hate with so little time, eh, Rob?

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