“Now he belongs to the ages.”

— Statement by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton at the moment of Lincoln’s death.

The 150th yahrzeit, or anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln, is an occasion that should be marked with profound respect and gratitude by all Americans in general, and by Jewish Americans in particular. April 2015 is exactly 150 years since that fateful day in 1865 when Lincoln and First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln attended a performance of  “An American Cousin” at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C.  It was April 14, 1865, and the long and bloody Civil War was virtually over. Lincoln was looking forward to helping to heal the broken nation during his second term.

John Wilkes Booth, a fanatically partisan Southerner and member of a prominent American family of actors, fired at Lincoln as he sat in his balcony seat.  Hours later, in a residence across the street from the theater, and despite the heroic efforts of the doctors at his bedside, Lincoln died on April 15, 1865.  As word spread that the Great Emancipator had been murdered, a black shroud of grief enveloped the nation, which was in desperate need of Lincoln’s wise and compassionate leadership. Instead, Vice President Andrew Johnson, a well-meaning but dull and plodding man who knew that he was ill-prepared for the job, became the stricken nation’s chief executive.

It is entirely appropriate for the American Jewish community to say “kaddish” for Lincoln during this period of shiva and shloshim, marking the sesquicentennial of his death.  Some of the many reasons are set forth below.

What was Abraham Lincoln’s relationship to the American Jewish community? According to two thoroughly researched and well-written books by three respected Jewish historians, Lincoln had a close and very positive relationship with the American Jewish community.  Last year, Gary Philip Zola, executive director of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives and a professor of the American Jewish Experience at Hebrew Union College, published “We Called Him Rabbi Abraham:  Lincoln and American Jewry” (Southern Illinois University Press, $49.50).

This year, two noted historians teamed up to publish “Lincoln and the Jews: A History” (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press,  $40). Its authors are Jonathan D. Sarna, Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University and the 18th president of the Association for Jewish Studies, and Benjamin Shapell, founder of the Shapell Manuscript Foundation and author of numerous articles on Lincoln and other U.S. presidents. Their just-published book is described by the Pulitzer Prize winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of “Team of Rivals” as “a spectacular collection of primary documents that cast new light on Lincoln…it is a treasure.”

 In addition, the two authors collaborated on “With Firmness in the Right,” about the relationship between Lincoln and the Jews, which is now on exhibition at the New-York Historical Society. It includes hundreds of items documenting Lincoln’s extremely close relationship with American Jews.  

Another exhibit, “To See Jerusalem Before I Die — Lincoln and the Jews,” will be at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, starting in August.

From all of the above sources we learn of the vast scope of Lincoln’s positive relationship with American Jewry during his long career—even before he became the nation’s 16th President during the crucial Civil War period. Rabbis who were among Lincoln’s contemporaries became fond of referring to him as “Rabbi Abraham,” and often took note of the coincidence of his first name with that of the biblical Abraham, regarded as the founder of the Jewish faith. Although Lincoln was nominally Christian he was not overly zealous in his religious beliefs and practices. Speculations that Lincoln might have some Jewish ancestors never could be documented.

Other significant examples of Lincoln’s close ties to Jews documented in these books and exhibitions include:

• Lincoln’s friendship with Jewish photographer Samuel Alschuler. After he took Lincoln’s picture in 1858, it became one of Lincoln’s favorite portraits.

• Lincoln’s support of a Jewish military chaplain. He penned a handwritten note, dated Nov. 4, 1862, to Secretary of War Stanton, in support of C. M. Levy, who applied for the position of quartermaster.  In the note, Lincoln pointedly says, “We have not yet appointed a Hebrew.”  Thanks to Lincoln, there have been Jewish chaplains in the U.S. military ever since.

• Lincoln’s cancellation of General Orders No. 11. Issued by then-General Ulysses S. Grant in 1862, which called for the immediate expulsion of all Jews from the military District of Tennessee. Lincoln immediately cancelled the orders, and made his extreme displeasure known to Grant, who was later named his top Union Army commander.  Grant later did teshuvah by expressing profound and repeated apologies for his mistake and for cultivating a very positive relationship with American Jewry during his two terms as President (detailed in Sarna’s previous book, “When General Grant Expelled the Jews).

In her review of the exhibit on Lincoln and the Jews at the New-York Historical Society for the New York Jewish Week, Sandee Brawarsky takes special note of one of Lincoln’s most moving gestures of kindness during his entire public career.  On June 2, 1864, Lincoln issued a parole pass to Charles Jonas, a Confederate prisoner of war, permitting Jonas to return to Illinois to see his father on his deathbed. Brawarsly notes,  “The soldier arrived in Quincy just in time to see his father Abraham Jonas, (while he was) still alive.” 

The Jonas family was divided with some on the side of the Union and others on the side of the Confederacy. Abraham Jonas had been a political ally and personal friend to his namesake Lincoln. The delegation that met with Lincoln pleaded for the three-month pass to let Charles Jonas visit his dying father. They had “come to the bosom of Abraham” for support in this manner.  “And you shall have it,” Lincoln was quoted as saying.

Brawarsky also takes note of the fact that Lincoln’s death coincided with the fifth night of Passover and the Christian observance of Good Friday. She writes, “The life of President Lincoln aligns too well with the holiday’s themes of freedom and liberation from slavery and oppression” that the book(s) and exhibition(s) “are particularly timely.”