You know nothing about Yale and the cult of the gentleman. Remember, Judah was English born, where Jews had been lynched for hundreds of years and could not attend university or become a member of Parliament or associate with gentlemen. By definition, he could not be a "Christian gentleman." No one knows the real reason that Benjamin was expelled. I, for one, would never accuse such a man to his face that he was a cheat. At Yale, he could not call his accuser out and cut him down in a duel. In New Orleans one would never mention such a thing. It would be your life.
If I am sensitive about his treatment, it is because I suffered similar treatment at Princeton, had no redress.
As a lawyer, you should recognize the problem of anonymous accusation. There were doubtless at Yale in his days pre-anti-semites who hated Benjamin because of his brilliance and his Jewishness. A word to the President (notoriously right-wing Christian) and the thing was done. Benjamin was doubtless denied the right to confront his accuser, nor was his word of honor believed. I suspect the reason Benjamin became a lawyer may have related to this experience.
Even today, one sees people framed in colleges and denied the right to defend himself. Read the caselaw. Students driven out of school because of supposed hate speech (University of Pennsylvania, Michigan). Given the choice between (1) believing a Jew could get justice at Yale and (2) that Benjamin was framed, I vote for the latter. I got to have evidence.
By the way, if your opinion was based on what you cited, you should revise it. It was, to say the least, a mischaracterization of what the article said. |
