The interest of the Jewish community in the American Civil War has traditionally been minute, as most Jews who arrived in came long after the War had ended. For that reason, two rare American Civil War tokens issued during the war by a Jewish restaurant in New York City pique much curiosity among collectors. The 150-year-old tokens will be presented this week at the Kedem Auction House in Jerusalem.
The background of the minting of these tokens lies in the American Civil War, during which the state ran out of money as it consumed the existent stash. This brought to the privately issuing of over 10,000 different types of tokens by a wide range of private merchants to fill the gap. The Jewish population at the time comprised of less than 1%, making Jewish artifacts from the time rare and uncommon. Despite the fact many Jewish merchants issued tokens as many of the Jews worked in commerce, only the Felix Dining Saloon token had Hebrew letters, stating it serves kosher food.
Not only the Hebrew letters make these tokens special however; the reverse side of one of the token reveals the Union Shield and the legend “Constitution and the Union” while another shows an Indian surrounded by 13 stars, representing the USA of course. This corresponds with the historical research which showed that the contemporary Jews identified almost completely with their neighbors, showing long-term and even post-War loyalty and patriotism with the North or South in accordance with where they lived. Thousands of Jews had fought in the war itself, the majority with the North, though Jews were also slave owners and even slave traders.
The Felix Dining Saloon, a Jewish restaurant in New York was the one to issue the tokens. The token inscription reveals the saloon was at 256 Broadway, New York, today a residential building opposite to City Hall Park. It should not be surprising that such overt restaurants acted in New York at the time, as the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815) brought to a substantial immigration wave of Ashkenazi Jews to the city and communal aid societies were formed.
Meron Eren of the Kedem Auction House concludes that “Small and rare as these tokens might be, they bear the vibrancy of Jewish life in New York, which started already over 150 year ago up till today. The tokens declare on one side the proud Jewish identity, and on the other side – the profound affiliation to the American state and values.”
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photo: Kedem Auction House)
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4 Responses
1. At least 10%, and perhaps closer to 25% of American Jews have ancestors who were present in the US in the 20th century. Admittedly, frum Jews are less likely than frei Jews to have been here that early.
2. They didn’t run out of money – they ran out of coins and paper currency. In 21st century terms, it would be as if the ATM ran out of cash – you have your money but you can’t get it from the ATM. Remember all coins then were at the actual value of the metal, and copper was needed for the war effort.
Many New Yorkers supported the South in the US Civil War, so the statement that Jews “identified almost completely with their neighbors” does not tell us whether Jewish New Yorkers of 1863 supported or opposed the War. The phrase “Constitution and the Union” does not clarify the question, as the US Constitution in force in 1863 specifically authorized slavery prior to 1808 and was silent about slavery thereafter. And some secessionists insisted that the US Constitution authorized secession. Even the colossally ignorant former governor of Texas and possible Republican presidential candidate stated several years ago that Texas has a right to secede from the Union.
Whose hashgacha?
nfgo3: Most New Yorkers supported the union. That’s somewhat clear from election results (New York went Republican both for president and for state offices).
Remember that New York had decided to end slavery a long time before that. Remember that most Americans felt that the Declaration of Independences “all men are created equal” effectively mandated the states to abolish slavery, which is why slavery had been abolished in most of the US by the time of the civil war. Jews in New York would have tended to be at least as pro-union as their neighbors, and as most were refugees from the failed revolution of 1848, they were especially likely to be anti-slavery and pro-democracy. In any event, open support for the rebels was considered treason and you would be arrested. Virtually no New Yorkers favored the south, though a minority favored allowing the south to leave the country.
The infamous “draft riots” were largely limited to recent Irish immigrants and did not have broad support.
It should also be noted that by the end of the civil war, most northern Americans had decided they were abolitionists retroactive to 1860 (similar to how most Americans in 1946 were opposed to anti-Semitism retroactive to before the war). Discovering the horrors of slavery seriously affected most Americans, similar to how discovering the concentration camps affected public opinion and made anti-semitism no longer respectable.