Jew Bill (Maryland)

Jew Bill
Coat of arms of Maryland
Coat of arms of Maryland
Maryland General Assembly
An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion, the same rights and privileges enjoyed by Christians
Date passed January 5, 1826
Signed by Samuel Stevens, Jr.
Introduced by Thomas Kennedy

The Jew Bill (more formally, "An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion, the same rights and privileges enjoyed by Christians") was passed in 1826 by the Maryland General Assembly to allow Jews to hold public office in the state. Before that, the state's constitution required public officeholders to make "a declaration of a belief in the Christian religion."

The bill was passed on January 5, 1826, "after a long and arduous struggle."[1] It altered the state's Test Act to allow members of the Jewish faith to hold public office upon swearing to a belief in "the doctrine of reward and punishment" rather than the generally required declaration of belief in Christianity. The fight to pass it was led in the early 1820s by Jacob I. Cohen Jr. (1789–1869) and Solomon Etting (1764–1847), who subsequently ran successfully for Baltimore City Council and became the first Jews to hold elected office in Maryland.[2] Maryland was the last US state to remove a prohibition on Jews holding public office.[1]:271

Arguing on behalf of the change, Thomas Kennedy, a Christian who had been elected to the Maryland legislature, said, "There are few Jews in the United States. In Maryland there are very few. But if there was only one — to that one, we ought to do justice."[3]


References

  1. 1 2 Eitches, Edwards (June 1971). "Maryland's "Jew Bill"" (PDF). American Jewish Historical Quarterly. 60 (1–4): 258–78.
  2. ↑ Wiernik, Peter (1912). History of the Jews in America: From the Period of the Discovery of the New World to the Present Time. New York: Jewish Press Publishing Company. p. 127.
  3. ↑ Niebuhr, Gustav (Jul 31, 2008). Beyond Tolerance: How People Across America Are Building Bridges Between Faiths. Penguin.
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