As we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States, we’re looking back on those two and a half centuries of history, and the critical role Jewish Americans and Judeo-Christian values have played in helping to create and define the beautiful nation we live in today.
In 1790, George Washington paid a visit to Newport, Rhode Island. In support of the first American president, the head of the Touro Synagogue — one of the country’s oldest Jewish temples and the oldest Jewish house of worship still standing in the nation — penned a letter to Washington from his supportive congregation. President Washington replied in the following letter, which to this day is read aloud each year by the congregation:
To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island.
Gentlemen,
While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all classes of Citizens.
The reflection on the days of difficulty and danger which are past is rendered the more sweet, from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of uncommon prosperity and security. If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advantages with which we are now favored, we cannot fail, under the just administration of a good Government, to become a great and happy people.
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
G. Washington
Washington’s letter to the congregation was significant as it was one of the American government’s first official statements decrying anti-Semitism. Today, the Touro Synagogue is a national historic landmark and still stands as America’s oldest synagogue. It also represents the principle of religious freedom that the United States was founded upon –helping create a country where Christians and Jews can coexist.
