Fear No Pharaoh
American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery
by Richard Kreitner
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Pub Date Apr 01 2025 | Archive Date May 01 2025
Description
A dramatic history of how American Jews reckoned with slavery—and fought the Civil War.
Since ancient times, the Jewish people have recalled the story of Exodus and reflected on the implications of having been slaves. Did the tradition teach that Jews should speak out against slavery and oppression everywhere, or act cautiously to protect themselves in a hostile world?
In Fear No Pharaoh, the journalist and historian Richard Kreitner sets this question at the heart of the Civil War era. Using original sources, he tells the intertwined stories of six American Jews who helped to shape a tumultuous time, including Judah Benjamin, the brilliant, secretive lawyer who became Jefferson Davis’s trusted confidante; Morris Raphall, a Swedish-born rabbi who defended slavery as biblically justified; and Raphall's rival rabbis—the celebrated Isaac Mayer Wise, who urged Jews to stay out of the slavery controversy to avoid attracting attention, and David Einhorn, whose fiery sermons condemning bondage led to a pro-slavery mob threatening his life. We also meet August Bondi, a veteran of Europe’s 1848 revolutions, who fought with John Brown in “Bleeding Kansas” and later in the Union Army, and the Polish émigré Ernestine Rose, a feminist, atheist, and abolitionist who championed “emancipation of all kinds.”
As he tracks these characters, Kreitner illuminates the shifting dynamics of Jewish life in America—and the debates about religion, morality, and politics that endure to this day.
A Note From the Publisher
Advance Praise
“Fear No Pharaoh breaks new ground in Civil War history. Richard Kreitner is a superb detective and storyteller rolled into one. Kreitner not only illuminates the complex lives of nineteenth-century American Jews but also challenges his readers to reflect on the enduring intersection of faith, ethics, and national identity.” —Amanda Foreman, author of World on Fire and Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire
“Not just brilliant—which it is—Fear No Pharaoh eloquently recounts how Jewish Americans, haunted by enslavement, variously responded to America’s besetting sin. Timely, superb, heartrending, not to be missed.” —Brenda Wineapple, author of Keeping the Faith and The Impeachers
“Lucid and wise, this is the first book to show that the history of Jews and the history of slavery are intersecting stories—tragic as well as heroic. Kreitner leaves no doubt that Jews’ encounter with slavery typified their Americanization. Kreitner has a gift for grabbing the third rails of 19th century American politics and not letting go until it makes sense as well as story.” —David Waldstreicher, author of The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley
“Nuanced, deeply researched, and engagingly written, Fear No Pharaoh is a work of even-handed historical narrative that will grip anyone interested in the Civil War or the American Jewish experience.” —Noah Feldman, author of To Be A Jew Today and The Broken Constitution
“Fear No Pharaoh is a marvel of scholarly investigation and humane storytelling. Like all necessary historical narratives, it makes the past look new even as it illuminates secret depths in our own troubled moment.” —Sam Tanenhaus, author of Buckley and Whittaker Chambers
“It is Richard Kreitner’s gutsiness that makes his Fear No Pharoah a thrill to read. The book is well-paced, elegantly composed, and packed with unforgettable characters—some heroes, some villains, most somewhere in between. It’s a rare thing to be able to say with confidence that a nonfiction book ‘needed to be written.’ But: Fear No Pharaoh needed to be written. And we are lucky Richard Kreitner was the writer to do it.” —Sam Adler-Bell, co-host of the Know Your Enemy podcast and contributor to The New York Times, New York, and The New Republic
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9780374608453 |
| PRICE | $32.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 416 |
