Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

February 14, 2019

Did Abraham Lincoln Tell American Rabbis That He Was of Jewish Ancestry? And If So, Why?

Reportedly, he also had a “Jewish countenance.”

In 1863, Isaac Mayer Wise—American’s foremost rabbi at the time—led a delegation of Jewish leaders to the White House where they met with President Lincoln. According to Wise’s account, the president stated that “he believed himself to be bone from our bone and flesh from our flesh” and “supposed himself to be a descendant of Hebrew parentage.” Wise further claimed that Lincoln “preserved numerous features of the Hebrew race, both in countenance and character.” Stuart Schoffman writes:

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