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The Reverend Theodore Parker, a renowned abolitionist in the 1800's, inspired Abraham Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., among others, with his writings and speeches. What statement did Reverend Parker make in reference to the Jews and Passover?
A. Representative James Buffinton of Massachusetts invited Revered Parker to deliver the opening prayer for the House of Representatives in April of 1860, as many southern states were discussing secession. Said Parker to Congress, “As our Jewish brothers and sisters gather together this week to observe Passover and celebrate the freedom of their ancestors, let us all pray today for the freedom of our Negro brothers and sisters in the south. I call on all of you, our Representatives of this great nation, to join with me in the words of the spiritual. Let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go. Amen.”
B. In an 1860 meeting with President Lincoln to discuss the issue of slavery, Reverend Parker said, “Mr President. I stand with you in working to combat the evils of slavery. In the Old Testament, we read of the plight of the Israelite people and their long march to freedom, crossing the Red Sea, traversing the Sinai Desert, and finally crossing into the Promised Land. I will work with you to help the Negroes of the south on a similar journey. However, I beseech you to provide them loaves of bread for their journey. This matzah is just too constipating.”
C. Reverend Parker was not involved in the anti-slavery movement until he was invited to a Passover seder by Rabbi David Einhorn, a leader of the reform movement in the United States and a staunch abolitionist. On the Sunday following the seder in 1859, Reverend Parker delivered a sermon at his church stating, “Having recently heard the story of the Jewish people bravely crossing the Red Sea to freedom, I recognize that we all must take responsibility for those who are enslaved today. Therefore I am committing myself to a life devoted to the abolition of slavery. I will not rest until every slave is free to cross the Mason-Dixon line, our symbolic Red Sea.”
D. Delivering a sermon to his congregants at the 28th Congregational Society of Boston in 1858, Parker said, “Just as the wrath of the Lord rained down upon the Pharaoh in Egypt to bring freedom to the Israelite people, so shall the Lord in our time bring his wrath upon the slave masters and those who would lead our country to war to protect this evil institution.”
E. In his book, Life and Correspondene of Theod. Parker, Minister of the 28th Congregational Society, Boston, Parker wrote, “I doubt not that they [the Jews] did sometimes kill a Christian baby at the Passover.”