A Little Jerusalem far from Israel: Jewish heritage in South Carolina
by Jordan Cooper
May is Jewish Heritage Month — and a time to ponder. God created this world for us to live in humaneness with the keenest sense of compassion for every human being. God created societies to be filled with works of goodness that correspond to the morality in His word. God created us to be understanding people with lives that are based on facts and not just like a fictional movie based on a true story.
We all were descended from Adam and Eve, as said in The Holy Bible. So, those who are anti-Jewish or anti-semetic are only disowning the ancestral root that connects us to the power source that made us virtuous people. That power source is God. Jews have faced hostility and persecution in every continent of the world. In their long history, Jews have tried to run from it by changing their last names, relocating to different territories, and changing their physical appearance. Jews are now able to today to keep their families together by having a lasting surname, hometown, and countenance in many countries, but not every one of them.
Jews have been an integral part of South Carolina’s History and America’s.
The oldest surviving reformed synagogue in the world is Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina. The first Jewish person elected to public office in America was South Carolina Congressman Francis Salvador. The longest serving speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives Solomon Blatt was a Jew. The first black police chief of Charleston, South Carolina Reuben Greenberg was a Jew. Hence, Jews can be successful if — as we’ve so sadly seen in their long history — they are not being exterminated or exiled.
Jordan Thomas Cooper is a 2015 graduate of the University of South Carolina with a degree in History and a 2010 graduate of the Real Estate School of Success in Irmo. He is the first African-American to serve in both the governor and lieutenant governor’s office as an aide and first to serve in the Inspector General’s Office in S.C. (Haley) He is also the first person to serve in the top three offices in the gubernatorial line of succession in South Carolina (Haley, Bauer, McConnell). His research indicates he happens to be the second black presidential campaignspeechwriter in American History and the first for a GOP presidential campaign (Bush 2015). He also played football for Coach Steve Spurrier.