American Jewish Archives Journal, Volume 64, Numbers 1 & 2

only the highest justice, but also the most tender kindness.” All that follows
supports this initial thesis. I.M. Jost, the first modern historian of the Jews,
praised the work as the best thing written on
Jews and slavery. 39 Professor Francis Lieber
of Columbia University read it, saw its relevance,
and passed it on to abolitionists who
later published it in the American Theological
Review as rebuttal of Raphall. So, probably
without intending to do so, Mielziner backed
into a moral political argument in the United
States, where he would later serve as professor
of Talmud at Hebrew Union College in
Cincinnati. 40
Compared to Mielziner’s work, there
was a much sharper edge to Gottheil’s Moses
versus Slavery. Gottheil would later become
rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York and
was an early Zionist. In 1861 he was still a
rabbi in Manchester, England, who knew
about America from the newspapers. Gottheil
read Raphall’s
remarks, gave
two angry sermons
on 26
January and
2 Februar y
18 61, a n d
hurried into
print with a
slender volume
of his
refutations. 41
Top: Cover Page of Einhorn’s Selected Sermons and Addresses, edited by K. Kohler (New York:
Bloch Publishing, 1911) Left: Page from Einhorn’s prayerbook, Olat Tamid; Right: Cover Page
of Olat Tamid: Book of Prayers for Jewish Congregations, Baltimore, 1858
(All courtesy Klau Library)
The Debate on Slavery: David Einhorn and the Jewish Political Turn • 145