Thursday, February 11, 2016

Jefferson and Judaism

SURPRISINGLY, MAYBE. SORT OF: Thomas Jefferson: Jewish Student Of Talmud? (Saul Jay Singer, The Jewish Press). Excerpt:
Jefferson was not a particular friend of the Jews, and he certainly wasn’t an admirer of Judaism, but his passionate and influential advocacy of equal rights for all, including specifically freedom of religion, had an enormously positive impact upon Jewish rights in America. He almost certainly studied Talmud and, though by no means determinative, some genetic evidence does exist to support the proposition that he was descended from Sephardic Jews.