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And why?
Shimon Peres. OK just kidding.
George Washington. For founding this nation and serving as General.
And why is a question about American Presidents being asked using the British spelling of “favorite”?
The Goq. Because he’s head of the welcoming committee. 😉
Reagan. Bec it makes liberals mad that he’s still so well liked.
Who said the question was about American presidents?
Washington – he did more for Jewish civil rights than all the other presidents combined. Starting when he was Commander of the Continental Army, and through the Constitutional Convention and his presidency, he was responsible for establishing the policy that all religions have rights in America (until then it was even radical to suggest that all Protestants should have full rights – including non-Christians was considered as being beyond belief). Jews could hold federal office as soon as the constituiton was adopted, though it was another 50 years before all states adopted similar policies (in Britain it was almost a century before a Jew could be a member of parliament).
The president of my shul because he does all the work to keep things open and running well.
Benjamin Franklin cuz he’s on the hundred dollar bill
Woodrow Wilson, the fourteen points were very well thought out. Or maybe Calvin Coolidge because he knew how to keep his mouth shut.
James Madison. Primary author of the Bill of Rights. Although one could counter that achievements before becoming president should not count.
Benjamin Franklin was never president. You may have been joking but you would not believe the number of people who think he was!
And George W. I miss him everyday. Our country is going down the tubes.
Definitely George Washington. Wilsonian foreign policy is ill-conceived and global governance is a bad idea (although R’ Haim Daivd HaLevi, zt”l, even attributed messianic significance to the establishment of the United Nations).
Benjamin Harrison
points if you can guess why
either you are twenty three or you are from indianapolis.
or something discworld related.
heh heh. Nope, nope, and nope.
William McKinley.
Nelson Mandela. 1st democratically elected President of South Africa.
He was jailed for 28 years and came out of prison, and forgave those who put him there in order to build a Rainbow Nation out of all the different strands of society. He created unity out of people who were suspicious and distrustful of each other. We should learn a lesson from him, in being mevater and machshiv people despite their differences.
Viva Tata Madiba Viva
Nelson Mandela. 1st democratically elected President of South Africa.
He was jailed for 28 years and came out of prison… and the country has gone to the dogs ever since.
Theodore Roosevelt.
In my opinion, he was the best president of the 20th Century.
He turned the US into a superpower. He basically created the US Navy, he stood up to the Russians when they had a big pogrom.
Mandela turned South Africa into a banana republic. His party, the African National Congress, is/was a Soviet/Russian-backed anti-Western socialist organization.
Benjamin Franklin cuz he’s on the hundred dollar bill
Personally I prefer Salmon P. Chase.
If you have any pictures of him on some green paper, Ill take them all
rebdoniel: Mandela managed to end a civil war that was threatening to destroy his country. South Africa now has free elections and a free economy. Virtually no one thought that was possible 40 years ago. Remember the ruling class were Nazis (the “real” thing – the major leaders of the Nationalist party were arrested during World War II for working for the Germans and came close to getting executed for treason) – real honest to goodness Nazis and Mandela managed to get them to peacefully surrender. South Africa has had 20 years of democratic elections, a loud opposition, and has made it to the border of being considered a developed country. Virtually any other scenario would have led to massive casulties, and the probability that majority rule would have led to a mass expulsion of all non-Africans. That his party went from pro-communist, socialist, and undemoratic to capitalist, western and pro-demoratic — is something he personally did.
Imagine if Abraham Lincoln in 1861 managed to talk the southerns out of having a civil war and agreeing to abolish slavery. Imagine if Chamberlain had talked Hitler out of the holocause and world conquest (well, he thought that was what he was doing). Imgaine if one of the zionist leaders had talked the Arabs out of declaring war on the Jews (as one of the Hareidim tried, before he was shot).
Teddy Roosevelt. Read “The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt” and its sequel “Theodore Rex” to find out why.
Incredible man.
Lincoln. Emancipation.
Mandela managed to end a civil war that was threatening to destroy his country.
I certainly don’t condone the apartheid regime. But it is a bit funny to credit someone with ending a civil war that they started.
(do I have my history correct here?)
You cannot deny the anti-Israel attitudes of people central to the anti-apartheid movement, like Desmond Tutu, y”s. Also, why do you think so many whites, including Jews, had to leave South Africa once the ANC took control? Any South African Jew you would talk to will tell you that they had to leave because of the violence that Mandela and his cronies caused. If that was such a benevolent movement, than why did the USSR back it and America oppose it? The ANC is supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the South African Communist Party and COSATU, and the ANC is a member of the Socialist International. Under Mbeki, the ANC did make some concessions to capitalism, but the ANC is still marked by a leftist, anti-white, anti-colonial agenda.
The ANC, in December 2012, also voted in favor of BDS.
Mandela, when visiting Israel in 1999, came in a spirit of peace, but did acknowledge the fact that apartheid South Africa enjoyed good relations with Israel. (Recall that Arik Sharon in 1981 visited SA troops in Namibia and said that South Africa needed more weapons to fight Soviet influence).
George Washington, for all the reasons given, and some others:
He realized that the US at the time he became President was an economic backwater, and that the only other person who understood this and knew what to do about it was Alexander Hamilton. He put Hamilton in charge of the economy and the US has since thrived. I shudder to think what the US would look like today had we followed Jefferson’s economic model.
Similarly, as the top General in the Continental Army, he listened to others (including Hamilton, then a staff officer) and in particularly to Rochambeau. In the summer of 1781, Washington wanted to attack New York, thinking he could finally dislodge the British garrison here. He was probably right, as the French had notably increased the size of the military forces available to Washington. But Rochambeau realized that he had the chance to trap Cornwallis in Virginia, and Washington yielded. The rest is history.
Other best Presidents: Lincoln, and the two Roosevelts. Obama has a chance to be ranked among them if the economy continues to improve and he continues to be lucky in foreign policy.
Mandela does get a lot of credit. After 27 years in horrible prisons, who could have blamed him had he demanded revenge? But he not only called for reconciliation, he disassociated himself from some of the ANC’s extremists (including his then-wife). Unfortunately, his successors have been ordinary politicians who have not served the country well.
Also worthy of note is that the idea that Mandela is anti-Semitic or anti-Israel has been debunked. Again, he could have demanded revenge given that Israel did give support to the Apartheid regime (WHAT were they thinking?). But he did not. (Note that many of the people responsible for the Apartheid system had, in the words of Reagan State Department official Chester Crocker, “supported the wrong side” during World War II.)
“a civil war that they started.
(do I have my history correct here?)”
Only partly. The ANC attempted for years to change the Apartheid system through peaceful democratic means. But the response from the Apartheid leaders was to deny them the right to vote, with eventual plans to strip them of their citizenship! They probably learned this from the Nazis whom so many had supported during WW2. So the ANC did start an “armed struggle” and Mandela was indeed guilty of being part of that (hence his 27 years in prison, originally a death sentence). But the ANC never put a lot of effort into its “armed struggle”, preferring to arrange for a worldwide sanctions and divestment effort. Which worked.
Obama will probably go down in history as a very memorable president.
“the ANC is a member of the Socialist International”
So is Tony Blair! So was Francois Mitterand!!! Both were great friends of the Jewish people and of Israel. Can the guilt-by-pejoritive stuff, Daniel!
“the violence that Mandela and his cronies caused. “
Not “caused”. SA didn’t have a real police force when the ANC took over; the “police” were really about torturing dissidents than fighting crime. If you believe the official statistics, homicide rates have dropped by 50% since the ANC took over.
“I shudder to think what the US would look like today had we followed Jefferson’s economic model.”
About Jefferson’s economic model charliehall does shudder?
“You cannot deny the anti-Israel attitudes of people central to the anti-apartheid movement, like Desmond Tutu”
Tutu has lost all his moral integrity. It is a shame.
“Also, why do you think so many whites, including Jews, had to leave South Africa”
A lot of whites, including Jews, had to leave South Africa because they feared the violence of the South African security forces. It was a police state that terrorized people who disagreed with it. And even fleeing the country did not render you safe, for like the Pinochet regime in Chile, it was willing to assassinate its enemies even once they had left the country. (See Ruth First for an example.)
The Labor Party is also a member of SI; I am not referring to that as a bad thing, but in the context of what American leaders (Reagan) stood for, that was obviously a source of tension.
Things in SA did generally stabilize under Mbaki, though.
If America followed Jefferson’s economic plan, we’d be all spewing dumb things like Paula Dean and America wouldn’t be much different from Anatevka. Without urban life, the Jewish population never would have grown to what it is in this country. Surely, there were Jews in agriculture and Sephardic plantation owners in places like Charleston and Savannah, but an agrarian America would have never worked.
What about Clinton? By the time he left office, we had a budget surplus, crime had fallen every year, unemployment was at 4%, and he created 20 million jobs! Sounds pretty good to me.
The budget is set by Congress, so you can thank the Republican Congress during the Clinton years. So is jobs and unemployment an issue that is determined by laws Congress passes. Crime is a local issue.
gorge bush the second good military and good to the jews
Temimus: actually, the gop congress of the 90s was notoriously ineffective and badly run by newt gingrich. and if economics are entirely decided by congress, as you say, then how can one blame obama for our economic woes?
Actually Newt’s team did a wonderful job, was very effective, and forced Mr. Clinton to back down from his lib agenda. And Obama has a Dem Senate. So he and his party share the blame.
Ronald Reagan…no scandals,just leadership. And a wife who dressed with aristocracy. And yes, I’m that old:)
For all those pro Roosevelters
FDR deliberately hurt Jews by restricting their immigration to nearly zero and opposing opening refugee camps in N. Africa (Wyman p 117). In June 1939, FDR refused to save 900 Jews aboard the ship St. Louis. FDR repeatedly endorsed the Holocaust – he suppressed news about it (Treasury Report) and would not permit bombing of deportation railways or crematoria at the camps even when it could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives (Wyman p 295). FDR delayed the freeing of prison camps in the Netherlands as long as possible so the Jews would die. Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of the Jews, Treasury Department, January 13, 1944, said FDR was “guilty not only of gross procrastination and willful failure to act, but even of willful attempts to prevent action from being taken to rescue Jews from Hitler.” Just one fact of many that are in the report – “By the act of 1924, we are permitted to admit approximately 150,000 immigrants each year. During the last fiscal year only 23,725 came as immigrants. Of these only 4,705 were Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.”
For more on this gruesome FDR horror see Abandonment of the Jews by David Wyman, 1984; and PBS’s The American Experience | America and the Holocaust.
“About Jefferson’s economic model charliehall does shudder?”
No, because Jefferson is dead and so is the chattel slavery he supported. He was brilliant but horribly wrong on so many things.
Hamilton, OTOH, was an abolitionist.
“Ronald Reagan…no scandals,just leadership. “
You forgot Iran Contra — the biggest scandal of the past 30 years!
“FDR deliberately hurt Jews by restricting their immigration to nearly zero “
That wasn’t his doing. The Republican Congress and President in 1924 enacted that restriction and FDR had no power to change the law.
“In June 1939, FDR refused to save 900 Jews aboard the ship St. Louis.”
He had no legal authority to admit anyone on the ship, and probably would have been impeached had he done so. His underlings, however, desparately worked to find other places where they could go, and they did make it to places other than Germany. Many survived the Shoah.
“FDR repeatedly endorsed the Holocaust”
That is a slanderous lie. I challenge you to find a single statement or writing in which FDR or any American elected official endorsed the murder of millions of Jews.
“would not permit bombing of deportation railways or crematoria at the camps even when it could have saved hundreds of thousands of lives”
That wasn’t FDR’s decision to make. He didn’t interfere with the generals on the scene. If you want to blame anyone for that decision, blame Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Commander in Europe and had full authority to bomb anything he wanted. (Eisenhower would prove incredibly hostile to Israel in 1956.)
“FDR delayed the freeing of prison camps in the Netherlands as long as possible”
Wrong again. The Netherlands was liberated by Canadian troops, not Americans. They avoided fighting in much of the country in order to avoid civilian casualties; much of the Netherlands was at the time one of the most densely populated places in the world.
“By the act of 1924, we are permitted to admit approximately 150,000 immigrants each year.”
That is a lie. There was no limit to the number of immigrants allowed from the Western Hemisphere. If a Jew could somehow make it to a Western Hemisphere country, and spend a year there, he/she could then come to the US freely. Unfortunately few Jews took up the offers of refuge made by Haiti and the Dominican Republic. (I do know someone whose grandfather spent a year in Haiti.) Yet most Jews from Germany who wanted to get out did get out by 1939, as Germany had a relatively high limit — over 50,000 per year, more than any non-Western Hemisphere country.
The problem was the quotas for Eastern Europe. Poland’s annual quota was 5,982. Russia’s was 2,248. Hungary’s was 473. Lithuania’s was 344. Yugoslavia’s was 671. Romania’s was 603. And that was for ALL immigrants from those countries, not just Jews. FDR had no power to admit anyone over the limit.
Jewish nativists should think about when they support immigration restrictions.
how could u argue over such stupid things don’t u have anything better to do
I guess as a young girl, I missed it! And after that I learned a bunch of Canadian history:)
No question. Ronald Reagan. He was a true statesman. My only disagreement with something he did was when he went to Bitburg.
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