Original prompt: click on "Random Wikipedia Article" and write about whatever comes up (you can try 3 times and pick your favorite). For the record, I got Alejandro Estivill, Fencing at the 2011 Pan American Games – Women's épée, and Benjamin F. Jonas. I chose Benjamin F. Jonas because it was the longest of the three entries and it had a photo.
- He was born in Kentucky, moved to Illinois as a kid, and went to college and spent the rest of his life in Louisiana
- Jonas's father was a merchant and lawyer
- His father knew Lincoln (like they were real buds)
- Despite this, Jonas sided with the confederacy
- Not only did he side with the confederacy, but he joined the Confederate army and rose to the rank of major
- He went to University of Louisiana (now Tulane)
- Jonas was Jewish (I didn't know there were Jewish senators who served the Confederacy)
- He was the second Jewish U.S. Senator from Louisiana and the third Jewish Senator overall
- Jonas was the first Ashkenazi Jewish US senator
- Although he was Jewish, he married a Christian woman and did not seem to practice Judaism openly
- He was once elected to state senate, but said no thanks
- Perhaps, as karma, he later ran for re-election for U.S. senate and lost
- Shockingly, he was the last Jewish senator from the Deep South until Jon Ossoff (for context, Jonas left the senate in 1885)
- He was chairman of the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs when he was a U.S. senator
- Jonas served as something called the Collector of the port of New Orleans (though I couldn't click on this title so I'm not 100% sure what it is)
(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)
Benjamin F. Jonas. Library of Congress description: "Jonas, Hon. Benjamin Franklin, Senator of Louisiana. Served in the Washington Artillery until 1863".
Comments
Post a Comment