Doing away with Judah Benjamin

News stories say activists and protesters have declared war on Judah Benjamin, former U.S. senator from Louisiana and attorney general, secretary of war and secretary of state for the Confederacy.

Since the end of the 1861 war, Benjamin was pretty much forgotten, except by historians. Benjamin’s major cause for political damnation was, he backed the wrong side. Had he not, like other Confederates, taken a stand against Northern intransigence and the Federal government’s intrusion into state matters, but stood for the North, Benjamin would be remembered as “the first Jew who …” followed by several accolades.

Benjamin was a wealthy plantation owner in Louisiana, which means he owned a number of slaves. Condemned to Hell now, is Benjamin, if the activists and protesters believed in Heaven and in Hell. Since they have not that belief, their fallback operation is to remove Benjamin’s name from public and private places.

About 18 months ago Benjamin’s name was removed from a wall at a synagogue in California, as were the names of a musician and actor Dustin Hoffman. Plans are to replace the removed with names of prominent Jewish women.

Just a few miles down the road from here is the Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park. Following the 1861 war, Benjamin took refuge at the plantation before his voyage to England, from which he did not return.

I wonder how long it will be before somebody in the public or a state parks official or a state legislator looks up one day and says, “Dang! We’re memorializing a Confederate! We must do away with – whoever he was.”

If the State of Florida decides to remove mention of Benjamin, I will be there with my cane or my walker, advising against the removal of memory and of history. Sometimes I do not advise quietly.