At 160 The Gettysburg Address Meaning Endures
 GETTYSBURG — On a crisp November morning 160 years ago, President Abraham Lincoln woke to a beautiful, cloudless fall day and began making a couple of slight corrections to a short speech he was going to give that morning. He would speak at a ceremony to dedicate the Soldiers National Cemetery, honoring the dead who had fallen in the pivotal Civil War battle here in Gettysburg months earlier. He was at the home of David Wills, a mover and shaker who had been instrumental in securing the funds for the cemetery. The night before, he had told a crowd outside the house asking for a speech that it was best not to speak when he didn’t have anything to say. Months earlier, Wills had invited Edward Everett to give the main speech. A former ambassador to Spain, vice presidential candidate and Harvard University president, Everett was the rock star of his era, an orator and statesman with a commanding voice, who was so influential that those who planned the ceremony pushed the date from October into November to accommodate his schedule. “The occasion is one of great importance not to be dismissed with a few trifling remarks,” Everett had said. “In that era, oration was an art form, and he was the undisputed master of it,” explained Michael Kraus, the historian and curator at Soldiers and Sailors Hall in Pittsburgh. In contrast, according to news accounts, the planners didn’t even send Lincoln’s invitation until Nov. 2 and it didn’t arrive till a week before the ceremony. No one really expected Lincoln to come, explained Gwinn. “Lincoln rarely left Washington, D.C., so when he was sent the invitation, it was seen as a grand gesture. The big ‘get’ for the event was Everett.” Everett took to the stage around 11 a.m. and for the next two hours delivered his remarks honoring the men who had perished just three months earlier. Both Seward and Lincoln embraced Everett after the speech, and then Lincoln took to the podium. Two minutes and 272 words later, delivered in his signature squeaky voice edged with a Kentucky twang, Lincoln stepped down from the podium, as the choir began to congregate, and believed unequivocally that he had failed to meet the moment. “And for a long time, that wasn’t just his sentiment — that was the sentiment of those who reported on it and those who were there to hear it,” Gwinn said. “His voice didn’t carry, so unless you were in the front few rows, you really didn’t hear it, which is why many of the newspaper accounts of the day have missing words in it.” Everett — despite his great ego and to his great credit — sent Lincoln a note the next day that read: “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as close to the central idea of the occasion in two hours, as you did in two minutes.” The persistent tale that Lincoln wrote the address on the trip from D.C. to Gettysburg makes for a nice story, but doesn’t hold up, said Gwinn. “He almost assuredly began working on it in earnest while he’s in the White House. While we know he made some changes at the Wills House, it was something that he crafted very carefully.” “This legend that he just wrote it out again in one brilliant flash of inspiration, I think that’s one of the stories that dehumanize Lincoln and make him something other than us, when he was very human,” he added. The speech’s harsh dismissal Everett recognized the importance of the address, but many, including many newspapers, dismissed the speech as harshly as the Clearfield Republican did a week later, when it referred to Lincoln as a “jester” and his speech “cold, insipid and unworthy of the day” and predicted the speech would never be thought of again. “Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened for decades,” said Gwinn. “Today we look at the Gettysburg Address having this immortal quality to it,” but the address feel quickly into obscurity. The historian, who has worked at the Gettysburg National Park for over 20 years, explains that it wasn’t until the early 1900s — when a lot of Civil War veterans, particularly Union veterans, returned to the battlefield to dedicate monuments — that the significance of Lincoln’s speech becomes truly evident. Almost all of those veterans refer to the Gettysburg Address — or borrow from it — in their dedicatory remarks. “Which tells us that, by that point in time, Americans — and veterans of the United States armies in particular — are trying to attach a meaning to what they had done, what they had accomplished,” said Gwinn of the shift of the speech out of oblivion to reverence and endurance. By 1910, those veterans began building a Grand Army of the Republic buildings all across the mid-Atlantic and Midwest, beginning a fraternal organization that promoted honor and purpose to what the veterans had done to save the nation, explained Kraus. “At the center of all of them is the Gettysburg Address,” Kraus said, pointing to the massive, beautifully scripted one that sits in honor at the center of the Soldiers and Sailors Hall in Oakland. Lincoln’s ability to imbue those 272 words with meaning is one of the reasons the speech has become hallmark of American oratory; by the early 20th century, especially after the horrors of World War I, Americans increasingly returned to the Gettysburg Address not just as a definition of what the war was about, but also what America was about. By 1914, the construction of the Lincoln memorial began, with the Gettysburg Address prominently part of the neoclassical tribute to the 16th President of the United States. At the same time, the country’s first cross-country road, the “Lincoln Highway,” is named. An address we still need The Gettysburg Address has had a “shelf life” throughout our modern history, Gwinn said, where we can brush it off and take it out when we need it. “In part, because of the way that Lincoln composed it — he doesn’t mention a single place by name. He doesn’t mention a single person by name. He only alludes to one date, and that’s 1776.” Thankfully, the veterans of that war — in their search for purpose and meaning — plucked those words out of obscurity and refused to allow the consequences of time to erode a profound ethos that endures — and in many ways defines who we are — today. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Do not forget to multiply IDF deaths by 33. Israel’s 44th Day of War By Sherwin Pomerantz On the 44th day of war in Israel 65 soldiers have died in combat. In addition, the IDF has raised the total number of young adults killed on October 7th at the NOVA Music Festival to 350, part of the total of 1,200 Israelis massacred that day. While we now have operational control of Gaza, rocket barrages continue as well from both Gaza in the south and Lebanon in the north. An estimated 30,000 supporters and family members of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza completed a five-day march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Shabbat. The families of those captured on October 7th pleaded with ministers to meet with them and said they felt their government has neglected them. However, they expressed gratitude for the thousands of supporters who provided them with food, drink, and shelter along the way. With the police blocking off sections of the highway, the families marched with pictures of their captured family members and waved Israeli flags. A meeting was held on Saturday night with senior government officials in Tel Aviv although the families walked away dissatisfied In a related story an Arab source with connections to Hamas said late on Saturday that Hamas was ready to release 87 of the 240 Israeli hostages in exchange for female and teen terrorists jailed in Israel along with security prisoners, fuel, and a 5-day ceasefire. In return for the convicted women and teenage terrorists and an unspecified number of prisoners, Hamas said it would release 39 Israeli women, 13 children, and 35 foreign hostages. There have been rumors of a hostage swap taking place in the coming days but with different numbers and terms. Today’s news talked about a staged release of hostages, a fixed number each day during the pauses in fighting but still nothing firm On the humanitarian side, with the cooperation of Egypt 140 trucks laden with humanitarian aid is entering Gaza each day. Two of those carry fuel. Israel is also now in control of Al Shifa hospital in Gaza City and has overseen the evacuation of patients who are well enough to be relocated while supplying medical equipment to those who must remain. With 1,200 killed during the October 7th massacre and 65 of our troops dead on the resultant battlefield, once again we learn that the price of freedom is high, very high. We can take some small inspiration from a section of former Prime Minister Menahem Begin’s acceptance speech in 1978 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after completing the peace agreement with Egypt Indeed, there are days when to fight for a cause so absolutely just is the highest human command.…. Only in honoring that command comes the regeneration of the concept of peace. You rise, you struggle, you make sacrifices to achieve and guarantee the prospect and hope of living in peace – for you and your people, for your children and their children. Let it, however, be declared and known, stressed, and noted that fighters for freedom hate war. This is our common maxim and belief – that if through your efforts and sacrifices you win liberty and with it the prospect of peace, then work for peace because there is no mission in life more sacred Painful as it is to contemplate, there is no mission in life more sacred. May our troops return safely to their homes and may our hostages live to once again see the families who still wait for them Sherwin Pomerantz has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., a international business development consultancy. He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past Chairperson of the Board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Delivering Consequences One Jew Hater At A Time Inbox StopAntisemitism.org info@stopantisemitism.org via auth.ccsend.com  StopAnti-Semitism refuses to stay silent in the face of the alarming hatred directed at the Jewish people. We are proud to announce our ongoing success in holding accountable who participate in such behavior, ensuring they face the appropriate consequences.  Richard Waygood - Pharma StopAntisemitism was made aware of a troubling social media post shared by Richard Waygood donning a Nazi armband while vacationing in Las Vegas. Following StopAntisemitism's report of Wagood's connection with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the company swiftly denounced his actions and dissolved all relations with Mr. Waygood. .jpg) Ariana Del Rosario - Tech StopAntisemitism uncovered antisemitic posts by a member of Apple's Data Operations team, Ariana Del Rosario in which she compared the State of Israel with Nazi Germany. In one photo she posed with a sign that read, "Zionism is Nazism." When these allegations were brought to light, Apple quickly parted ways with Del Rosario. .jpg) Abeer N. AbouYabis – Physician Emory Winship Cancer Institute's Physician, Abeer AbouYabis, chose to endorse Hamas proclaiming, "They got walls we got gliders glory to all resistance fighters." StopAnti-Semitism immediately took to X to share AbouYabis's horrific response. In response, Emory Winship Cancer Institute immediately placed her on leave pending an investigation. The investigation concluded Dr. AbouYabis actions were anti-Semitic and violated multiple codes of conduct. As a result, she was fired. .jpg) Amaury Letort - Consulting Stop-Semitism was alarmed to discover a social media interaction between Punchcut's Senior Project Manager, Amaury Letort, and a Jewish individual. In the exchange, Letort stated, "I hope your ancestors died in ovens and it will be the same for you and your family soon during a 2nd Shoah (fingers crossed). When that happens, I'm going to sh*t on Israeli flags while dancing." StopAnti-Semitism reported these comments to Punchcut, resulting in the company severing all ties with Letort. .jpg) Elom Tettey-Tamaklo - Student Stop-Antisemitism obtained footage revealing a troubling incident at Harvard during a pro-Hamas event. Several students could be seen surrounding a Jewish peer and harassing them by impeding the student's ability to walk freely. Through a meticulous investigation, Stop-Antisemitism identified one of the individuals involved as Elom Tettey-Tamklo, a second-year divinity student. In response to this disturbing revelation, Harvard promptly evicted Tettey-Tamklo from campus housing and relieved him of proctor duties. StopAnti-Semitism reaffirms its unwavering solidarity with the Jewish people and nation. If you have an anti-Semitic incident to report, please do so here. Am Israel Chai. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So be it! +++ A War in Gaza Is Splintering the Democratic Party++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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