Dr. H. Pereira Mendes, rabbi emeritus of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation, spoke Saturday afternoon before his congregation on the protest made by Secretary of State John Forsyth at the instance of President Martin Van Buren on the occasion of the Damascus persecutions of Jews in 1840.
Dr. Mendes pointed out that the Secretary of State in his letter to the American consul at Alexandria voiced the President’s feeling of “surprise and pain, that in this advanced age, such barbarous measures be resorted to in order to compel the confession of imputed guilt.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
