Friday, July 2, 2010

A July 4 Posting of a Different Stripe

With July 4 in only two days, you might find of interest the article at the following link, about Francis Salvidor, the Unsung Martyr of the American Revolution. And yes, he was Jewish.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/jewish/history3.php3

5 comments:

Lion of Zion said...

"And yes, he was Jewish."

big deal. with a name like francis, how frum do you think he really was?

ProfK said...

Lion,
If we're going to judge frumkeit now by the type of Anglicized names someone has, Klal is in deep trouble. Given this man's background the outside name was probably Francisco or Francesco and was anglicized while in residence in England. We aren't given his Hebrew name.

I don't think his level of frumkeit, or any lack thereof, had much to do with his work for the Revolution. Regardless, those in the colonies would simply have considered him a Jew, full stop, without worrying about his level of observance.

Those in the outside world with a "Jewish" problem aren't much worried about how Jewish that person is--reference the Nazis, yemach shemoh, who considered you Jewish for extermination purposes even if Klal did not consider you Jewish any longer because of intermarriage and lack of a Jewish mother.

Anonymous said...

ProfK: Methinks the Lion was merely mocking the type of comments your post would get if this was VIN or YWN.

Anyhow, interesting article. Thanks for the link.

ProfK said...

Anonymous,

Sigh, I agree in retrospect that LOZ was probably tongue in cheeking it--the dangers of responding to comments before that first cup of coffee is fully circulating.

Lion of Zion said...

PROFK:

do you really think someone named lion is going to judge someone named francis?