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footing. But more, remains to
be done, for although we are
free by the law we are not
so in practice; public opinion
erects itself into an inquisition,
and exercises its office with
as much fanaticism as fans
the fires of an auto-da-fe. The
prejudice still scowling on
your section of our religion,
although the older one, can-'
not be unfelt by yourselves. It
is to be hoped that individual
dispositions will be at length
mould themselves to the
Sau ford La vine
"Sandy," traveling represeta-
tive for this publication, enter
ed the Service at the outset of
World War 11 and lost his life
In the “Battle of the Bulge."
model of the law.” In this
same letter he suggested what
we now call inter-faith good
will as a cure for religious
prejudice, saying: “Nothing I
think would be so likely to ef
fect this as to your sect par
ticularly, than the more care-
iul attention to education,
which you recommend, and
which, placing its members on
the equal and commanding
benches of science, will exhi
bit them as equal objects of
respect and favor.”
Jefferson was also among
the first to protest against the
handicaps Jewish students
suffered because of the in
clusion of religious courses in
school and college curricula.
Writing to Isaac Harby of
Charleston, Jefferson said: “I
have thought it a cruel ad
dition to the wrongs which
that injured sect have suffered
that their youth should be ex
cluded from the instructions
in science afforded to all
others in our public semin
aries by imposing upon them a
course of theological reading
which their consciences do not
permit them to pursue; and in
the university lately estab
lished here (the University of
Virginia which he founded on
the basis of complete religious
equality) we have set the ex
ample of ceasing to violate the
rights of conscience of the
different sects respecting their
religion.”
In this connection it is signi
ficant that as 'early as 1814
Jefferson predicted the com
ing of an institution like B’nai
B’rith’s Hillel Foundation and
others outlined its techniques.
Writing to Thomas Cooper,
the sage of Monticello said:
“In our annual report to the
legislature, after stating the
constitutional reasons against
a public establishment of any
religious instruction, we sug
gest the expedience of encour
aging the different religious
sects to establish, each for it
self, a professorship of their
own tenents on the confines of
the university, so near as that
iheir students may attend the
lectures there, and have the
free use of our library and
every other accommodation
we can give them: preserving,
however, their independence
of us and of each other. . . .And
by bringing the sects together
and mixing them with the mass
of other students we shall
;often their asperities, liberal
ize and neutralize their preju
dices, and make the general
religion a religion of peace,
reason and morality.”
It was not mere coincidence
therefore that prompted Com
modore Uriah P. Levy to pre
sent to the United States
Government a statue of Jef
ferson, which still stands in
the Statuary Hall of the Capi
tol in Washington, and to
purchase Monticello. Jeffer
son’s home, and offer it to the
government. Nor was it chance
that the great Statue to Re
ligious Liberty, which was
presented to the city of Phila
delphia in 1876 by' the B’nai
B’rith on the centenary of the
Declaration of Independence,
should have been the work of
that distinguished Ben Brith.
Sir Moses Ezekiel, whose
statue of Jefferson stands on
the campus of the University
of Virginia.
That statue, incidentally,
was paid for in part by a sub
scription from B’nai B’rith.
whose Charlottesville unit is
known as the Thomas Jeffer
son Lodge.
Jefferson’s own estimate of
his place in history indicated
that he regarded his role in
the .achievements of religious
liberty as paramount. Over his
grave in the family cemetery
at Monticello is a granite
monument, bearing the in
scription, written by himself,
and found among his papers
after his death: “Here lies
buried Thomas Jefferson, au
thor of the Declaration of
Independence, of the Statue of
Virginia for religious freedom,
and father of the University of
Virginia.
The Southern Israelite
32