November 10, 2024 • 38 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Adam Jortner, the author of A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom, sits down with Lee Habeeb to discuss the vital role Jews played in the fight for religious freedom in the formative years of the United States.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we'd love to tell stories about America's founding. We
also love to tell stories about America's faith heritage, and
this next story combines both. Here to tell the story
about Jews in America around the time of the Revolution
(00:34):
is Adam Jortner. He's a professor of history and religion
at Auburn University. His book A Promised Land, Jewish Patriots,
the American Revolution and the Birth of Religious Freedom. Professor Jortner,
what brought you to study this idea of Jews in
the Revolution. I'm a real history buff. I had no idea,
(00:57):
no clue that Jews had been a part of the
fighting of the war effort.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, it sounds fake. It sounds like a comedy routine.
I'll tell you about Jews and the Revolution. That's the
shocking thing to me. And the more I read about it,
the more there was to find about it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Talk about how you came to write about this subject.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I wrote a book about Mormons, I've written a book
about Native American prophets. And my wife was pregnant with
my second kid, I was very nervous, and I was like, well,
I need a small project. I'll work on Jews and
the Revolution, because that won't that won't take very long.
My second son's now ten years old, so it did
take a while. But what I found out was, not
(01:40):
only are there Jews in the United States during the Revolution,
they're really passionate patriots. For the most part, A lot
of Jews rush to sign up, and a lot of
them end up because of the way the revolutionary war
works out, a lot of them end up in the
same city. They're all in Philadelphia, and they form this synagogue.
(02:02):
They reform the local synagogue Mikvah Israel in Philadelphia in
the seventeen eighties, which makes them one of the very
first kind of national religious groups. So not only is there,
you know, Jews in the Revolution, not only are Jews
part of the American religious history, they're there from the
(02:23):
very beginning of the Republic. And that really made me
stop and say, I need to know about these guys.
I need to really think about religion and the revolution,
just just to get the basic question of well, what
were people doing, what did they believe? What kind of
beliefs are bouncing around there in Bunker Hill and Valley
(02:44):
Forge and all these places.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You said they came to Philadelphia. Where did the Jews
come from? And when were the first Jews here in America?
When did the Jews arrive and why did they arrive?
Did they arrive for the same reason the Puritans arrived.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They all end up in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War
because most of the cities they're living in, Savannah, Charleston,
New York. By seventeen eighty those have all been taken
over by the British. So Philadelphia is sort of the
last city standing that still has a functioning synagogue. If
(03:21):
you want to be patriotic and you're a Jew, if
you can get to Philadelphia, you got to get there.
And this is something you know in terms of studying Jews.
Judaism requires there's stuff you need for Judaism. You need
to have a torah, you need to have a minion,
and these things are things that are a Methodist or
an Episcopalian doesn't necessarily need. So a lot of Jews
(03:45):
end up in Philadelphia. But Jews have been in the
Americas ever since Europeans got here. There were Jews coming
over when Spain invaded with the Aztecs. Of course, Judaism
is banned in Spain, so a number of Jews are
hiding out in New Mexico in the fifteen hundreds, so
(04:07):
this is a very old tradition. In North America, Jews
end up in the British colonies, places like New York
and Georgia, mostly as a result of accidents. A lot
of some of those Jews were living in Brazil when
it was under Dutch control and the Dutch offered some
kind of religious freedom. Then Portugal takes over, so a
(04:30):
bunch of Brazilian Jews end up heading to New York City.
And there are other cases where various Jews from Britain
or Jews who have been hiding in Spain sort of
end up in British North America. They know British North
America is a better place for religious freedom than Spain
(04:51):
under the Spanish monarchy, but it's still not a place
where religious freedom is full and celebrated. There are still
state churches in the British colonies. If you're Jewish, you're
not a subject, you're a resident, and the rules are
different for residents. So I mean, I think most of
(05:12):
the Jews end up. I mean, there aren't a ton
of them. There may be something like one tenth of
one percent of the population, a tiny, tiny number, but
they have built several synagogues by the time the Revolutionary
war is underway, and people who are visitors to the
colonies are sort of shocked that, you know, there's no
political equality, but they are shocked that there are Jews
(05:35):
in the taverns along with everybody else. They're surprised that
in the day today life they don't see the kinds
of distinctions between Christians and Jews that you might find
in say, Central Europe or Poland there isn't that kind
of distinction that's made.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And it's not just the Jews who are sort of
residents but not citizens. You write a bit about the
Catholics and the Baptists, talk about that as well, because
it's a sort of an alliance little form as the
revolution occurs, where a war ultimately brings a lot of
these folks together seeking a common ideal, which would be
religious freedom. But that wasn't also why they fought either
(06:14):
to talk about both of those things.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The thing that I think I found out writing this
book is that religious freedom was not a given in
seventeen seventy six, it wasn't that the British colonies were
this place where everybody had religious freedom, and then the
Revolution just kind of codifies it. Religious freedom is something
you have to work for, it something you have to build.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And you're listening to Professor Adam Jortner, and he's a
professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and his
book A Promised Land is a must read. I urge
you to go to Amazon or the usual suspects, pick
up the book, and you'll learn a lot about the
founding of this nation and the role Jews played in it.
And my goodness, we're learning something already, the fact that
(06:56):
there were Jews in America at the time, that Jews
were in in this patriotic struggle, and that so many
Jews ended up in the city of Philadelphia because it
was the one place where as the war was beginning
to commence, they felt free and they felt secure to
represent and fight on behalf of and for their country
(07:17):
and more importantly, for religious freedom.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
When we come back, we're.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Going to learn more about the state of religious freedom
in the United States, and so much more when we
continue with our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
of our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people, and we do it all
from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But we
(07:41):
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will
always be free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, consider making
a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to
our American Stories dot com. Give a little, give a lot.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories and with the story of the Jews
around the American Revolution and how Jews played a part
in our nation's founding and the Jews had been here
well for a very long time. Before picking up where
we last left off is Adam Jortner. He's a professor
of history and religion at Auburn University.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So what you have in the British colonies, and of
course these are not equal places. We know slavery is
legal in every British colony, even Massachusetts has enslaved people.
And it's not a world where it's assumed that each
human being has natural rights and Therefore, it's not a
(08:54):
big problem to say, well, there's going to be a
state church. The church sort of varies place to place. Congregationalist,
Puritan in Connecticut, and it's Episcopalian in Virginia and so on.
But these are all connected to the Empire. All these
state churches go back to the center of power in London,
(09:15):
and when the church is supported by a state, then
the church will back up what the state wants. Other
smarter people than me have pointed this out. When do
we get real abolitionist churches in the United States. It's
after the state churches have gone away. So the state
churches want stability, they want peace, and they want the
social order. That's how it works. So if you are
(09:36):
not a member of the state church, depending on the colony,
you just don't have the same religious rights. This is
the case with Jews. With Catholics Baptists, that's a bit
of a surprise for many of my students down here
in Alabama. But Baptists in Virginia are technically not allowed
(09:56):
to preach without permission from the episcopalia in the Anglican
state Church. Now, what is that my students always wanted
to know what does that mean. Does that mean they
go around hunting up the Baptists. Well, no, The way
it works is like this. If you're a Baptist preacher
or you attend Baptist services, you got to pay taxes,
and you pay a tax to support the state church.
(10:18):
And then unless you want your preacher to go hungry,
and if you want a meeting house to meet in,
you got to also pay for your own church. So
you're paying for two churches, only one of which you use.
Second thing is everybody's got a If you're a Baptist preacher,
you gotta be licensed and known by the state. And
of course the state can come in any time it
wants and says this is not official church, state church business.
(10:42):
And of course when would the officials do this. They
do it if any Baptists become troublesome, particularly if a
Baptist starts preaching against enslavement, or if a Baptist starts
preaching about freedom of conscience, that is the right to
choose your own pastor then the next Sunday you can
be sure the sheriff might show up and say, oh,
(11:04):
this is not a legal meeting, or someone might as
sometimes happened, throw a beehive into your services and then
nobody investigates it, or your preacher might get arrested. This
happens a couple of times when the preachers are arrested.
So Baptists don't have that kind of When we talk
about them not having full freedom, we really do mean
(11:25):
and they're not rounded up, but they're not allowed to
worship and for the powers to be that's okay because
they're not worshiping the right way. Same thing happens with
Jews in Rhode Island. There's a Jewish community in the
town of Newport, Rhode Island, and again they are allowed
to be there their residents, but there's a couple of
(11:47):
times when the governor comes in and tries to seize
all Jewish property based on the idea that well, this
is a Christian kingdom. That means Jews don't have property rights.
And they work it out, but that had to be
pre scary. And when one Jew in Rhode Island by
the name of Aaron Lopez, he's trying to become a subject.
(12:08):
He wants to become an Englishman in the colonies, Rhode
Island won't let him, so you know, it's the same situation.
And this is true Catholics in Maryland. Catholics could practice,
but not outside and not in it. You had to
be in a private house if you wanted to worship
and you were Catholic, you dared to be Catholic in Maryland.
(12:29):
This is the situation at the beginning of the revolution.
And here is something I sort of realized, which is,
what do the revolutionaries do before they write the Declaration
of Independence, before they write the constitution, before before even
before they fire a shot. What they are saying seventeen
seventy four, seventy seventy five is the British government is
(12:49):
no longer valid here. They have violated our rights, and
we break from them. And once the patriots say that,
then all of those rules about which church you go
to don't apply to the patriots.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Again, we can argue about this, what are the legal details,
but the reality is if you were Jewish and you
wanted to be a patriot and sign up, you can.
And Mordecai Cheftall in Georgia becomes leader of kind of
the de facto government of Savannah, even though he's Jewish,
because it's not under British control anymore. The same thing
(13:25):
happens with a guy named Charles Carroll in Maryland who
becomes a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He couldn't
hold office in Maryland because he's Catholic, but the Patriots
don't have those rules. Come one, come all, and this
is sort of how the Patriots. They have a lot
of support from these minority religious groups, and support from
all kinds of different people, but this is sort of
(13:48):
how these minority groups who had been legally banned from
full participation in the Patriot movement they're in.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
How did the Revolution change Jewish.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well, first of all, it gave Jews freedom to form
their own synagogues. In most European and colonial places, and
in Europe itself, there's one synagogue per town. But that's
not going to fly with the First Amendment because you
have freedom of religion, and what you get is actually
multiplying synagogue. So that really, for the first time in
(14:24):
the history of European Jewry and American Jewry, you have
more than one synagogue to choose from, which is not
always great because there aren't that many Jews in a
lot of these towns, but it's a real expression of freedom,
which is to say, we're going to choose to worship
this way and be Jews, and y'all can choose to
worship a different way and be Jews, and the state
(14:47):
and the rabbis cannot come in and stop them. So
it leads to a proliferation of voices about Judaism. The
other thing that is very interesting is that it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Leads to the first the first Jewish critiques of Christianity
in hundreds and hundreds of years, because freedom of the
press meant that Jews could finally write about that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And of course there are Christian groups who say this
is great. This religious freedom allows us to preach to Jews,
because in Europe it's hard to preach the Gospel to
Jews because they don't have full rights, they're being oppressed,
they won't be able to hear the real message of
Jesus Christ. But here in the United States there are
(15:33):
several organizations founded specifically too preach to Jews. So, okay,
we've gotten rid of the union of Church and States,
so this is a great time to preach. And they
start publishing books and Jews kind of respond and most
of the stuff is actually very very polite and very tepid,
but it does sort of lay out the foundations of
(15:53):
a new set of arguments between Jews and Christians based
on theological issues. And there are some some real whoppers
in there where Jewish leaders say, well, we believe in
the promises of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and
they bring up things that they don't agree with in
(16:14):
the New Testament, and they talk. They're able to openly
talk about you know, when we find Christian missionaries in
the doorways of our synagogues, this is really annoying. This
doesn't encourage us to convert. It is a way for
Jews and Christians to speak to each other on what
(16:35):
are very touchy issues, but they're able to speak openly.
They're able to sort of sort of speak as equals.
And there's even times when Jews and Christians will debate
each other in public and then nothing happens to either
of them, which again is a just a huge step forward.
It leads to a real flowering of Jews thinking about, Okay,
(17:01):
now that we have religious choice, why Judaism, what is
it that makes our faith distinctive? So it leads to
a lot of self analysis of Jews, and that in
turn is part of what makes new synagogues.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And of course all this debate within and among Jews
and Christians, well, this battle of ideas was not only
good for the churches and the synagogues, it was good
for America. And when we come back more from Adam
Jordner on the story of the Jews in America during
the Revolution. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and with the story of the
Jews around the American Revolution. Picking up where we last
left off is Adam Jortner and he teaches history and
religion at Auburn University, and his book A Promised Land
is a must read. I urge you to go to
Amazon or the usual suspects pick up the book. You
(18:29):
start your book in July of seventeen seventy six with
a man named Jonas Phillips shipping a copy of a
very dangerous document across the Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Who was he and what was that dangerous document?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Jonas Phillips is a Jewish merchant. He's living in Philadelphia.
He's a patriot, and he's sending the Declaration of Independence
to some friends back in Europe. And he writes the
letter in Yiddish, because again you're not allowed. It's illegal
to ship the Declaration of Independence. It's an illegal document.
(19:05):
So he writes the letter in Yiddish. We have a
copy of it, fortunately that it got saved because it
got captured by the British. And he says this. He says,
the American army is full of one hundred thousand rook
them and rookhim is Yiddish for tough guys. And the
British found this letter, could not translate the Yiddish and
assumed it was written in some kind of code, and
(19:27):
it got stuck in British archives for one hundred and
fifty years. But I think it's really I love this story.
And Phillips goes on to become president of the synagogue
in Philadelphia, funds money for naval operations, joins the militia.
He's a really serious patriot, and he's a guy who
speaks both Yiddish and English, a very devoted Jew as well.
(19:51):
And it's seventeen seventy six and the declaration is just
hot off the presses. It's an example of how Jews
saw this moment of revolution, this moment of becoming a
separate nation to cleave to the idea that all people
(20:11):
are born naturally free. This is something that resonates in
the Jewish mind, and it resonates right here in the
United States. I think one of the reasons why Jews
and the Revolution seems so odd is because, of course,
the vast majority of American Jews are descended from later
generations who come in the end of the nineteenth century
(20:34):
and who are inspired by, among other reasons, this idea
of freedom. But I also want to point out that
it was also inspiring for Jews who were already there
and who were able to come to the aid of
the cause. And Phillips is deeply involved in the war.
(20:55):
He's deeply involved in creating this new American Synagogue, and
later he's deeply involved writing to Washington and the Constitutional
Convention about hey, let's get full rights for Jews and
have no religious restrictions.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Let's talk about Jews that were loyal to the crown too,
Because look, Ben Franklin had a war inside his own house.
His son was the Royal governor of New Jersey and
sided with the Crown. And Ben Franklin did, and his
son ended up in jail. A lot of people don't
know that, and they never were to speak again. Were
there Jews that was sympathetic to the Crown and was
(21:34):
this a minority? Was it evenly split as many historians
believe Americans were. I think that many historians believe it
was sort of a third for the Crown, a third
with the Patriots, and a third hiding under their tables.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Wondering what would happen.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Talk about what you think that mix was within the
Jewish community.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
First of all, everybody, remember, if it's before nineteen fifty,
numbers are squishy, which I mean to say, when we
say X amount of Americans believe this, X amount of
Americans did that. The numbers are always squishy because there's
no there's no polling data. But here is what the
(22:13):
evidence sort of suggests. American Jews serve in the Patriot
Army in the exact proportion to their numbers in the population,
which is to say that you know, again, about one
tenth of one percent of Americans are Jewish, about one
tenth of one percent of the American army and militias
(22:34):
are Jewish. That probably indicates a very high degree of
alliance to the Patriot cause. Because no Jew in America
would have had a military tradition, because Jews are either
banned in European armies or they're banned from the officer class.
(22:56):
In Europe, virtually all the armies fight under a state church.
State church. You cannot have a Jew command a Christian. Russia,
for example, lets Jews into the army, and they're so
open they let Jews in at age twelve. So everyone
who saw a kid in the Russian army knows who
they can be anti submittic to, and of course think
(23:16):
they can't be officers. So there's no existing tradition of
Jewish military service in the United States. But you get
this very high level of participation that seems to suggest
that there is a strong patriot backing. Of course, it's
not always true. There are guys who live, particularly in
(23:36):
New York, who stick around. In fact, the New York
Synagogue itself splits the leader of the synagogue, a guy
named Grisham Satius when the British invade leads people out
of New York into Connecticut to establish a kind of synagogue,
a Jewish community in exile, and a few people sort
(23:57):
of stay back in New York and actually there's a Hessian,
one of the Germans who comes over with the British.
There's a Hessian Jew who ends up leading the synagogue
during the Revolutionary War while the British British occupy New
York for almost the whole war. Interesting that guy's name
is Abraham Zunz. And when the war is over and
(24:19):
the Jews come back to the patriot Jews come back,
they actually ask Zuntz to stay on as a member
of the board. And zunts is like this, well, I
could go back to Europe, but this seems I think
this is a good thing you guys have going. I'm paraphrasing.
So there are loyalist Jews who do stick around. What
I found was interesting is I didn't find as many
(24:41):
of them. And of course that might be because you know,
loyalists don't as often have their stuff saved. But what
I do think is interesting is that, at least in
the places where we can trace this in New York's
the best place, the breakdown between loyalists and patriots doesn't
seem to correspond to any previous divisions within the synagogue.
(25:02):
In other words, it's not like the people who preferred
their services in the Sephardic style joined one side, and
people who preferred it in the Ashkenasic style joined the
other side. Or the families who had fought between you,
because of course, you know it's a religious organization, families fight.
The breakdown between loyalist and patriot doesn't follow those divides,
(25:22):
which again I think suggests that American Jews are thinking
about this not as a way to settle old scores
or to further their pre existing agenda, but to say, oh,
this is a new, interesting problem, this is an opportunity.
How do we really think about the idea that all
people are created equal? How do we really feel about
(25:43):
the idea that we should be able to choose have
a voice in creating our own government. So there are
Jewish loyalists. I don't think there are as many as
Jewish patriots. But again, if you want hard numbers, those
do not exist.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
And you've been listening to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches
history and religion at Auburn University. His book A Promised Land,
Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious
Freedom is available at Amazon or wherever you get your books.
And we learn so much here about religious freedom in
this country and the revolutionary period. And it's not as
(26:23):
tidy as we'd come to believe from anything we've been taught.
I know, at least for me, I learned a lot
just listening thus far. And by the way, we hear
about not just the Jews role in the revolution, but
particular people too. Jonas Phillips, for one, a serious patriot,
and my goodness, we learn he even took a chance
(26:44):
shipping a copy of the Declaration of Independence overseas then Yiddish,
because the king thought this document was dangerous.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And my goodness, the king was right.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
A document like this was dangerous to kings, monarchs, tyrants everywhere.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
When we come back, more of the story of Jews
in the revolution here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with Adam Jortner. He's
a professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and
we're talking about Jews during the American Revolution, their participation,
and their fight to secure our liberties. Let's talk about
George Washington. He did a major first in world history
(27:59):
that is spoken of very often. He appointed Jews as
military officers that never happened in Europe. Talk about how
this made Jewish people feel about Washington.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, Washington appoints people to higher offices without regard for
their religion, and that in itself is a remarkable achievement.
And Washington doesn't write very much about this. It could
just be he needed the bodies. But here's the thing,
so does everybody else, his contemporaries. You know, white European
(28:34):
soldiers also need soldiers and good officers, but they allow
this discrimination to take place and Washington does not. That
probably secures Washington a real place in the heart of
early US Jews, to the extent that the Richmond Synagogue
will eventually write a prayer for George Washington, and you
(28:57):
know it's for Washington because it's spell It's acrostic in Hebrew,
so the letters spell out Washington because there's no w
sound in Hebrews. It's a prayer they write, and it
spells out the letters in Washington's name using the Hebrew alphabet.
But he has a real place in the hearts of
the Jews, and he becomes a kind of touchstone for
(29:20):
what he then later writes about how he doesn't see
any difference between a Christian citizen and a Jewish citizen.
For the record, he writes this for all kinds of
different minority religions. Washington did seem quite serious about the
fact that religious freedom meant religious freedom. No single sect,
(29:42):
no single church, no single religious tradition was to have
pre eminence.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Let's talk about George Washington's visit to Rhode Island. It
occurs in seventeen ninety Why is he in Rhode Island.
That's a long trip from Washington, DC and his home
at Mount Vernon, And who's this character to the end
up exchanging these beautiful letters which we're about to hear
the audience is about to hear. But set up this
story for us. Why is Washington in Rhode Island? To
(30:09):
begin with?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So President Washington goes to Rhode Island in seventeen ninety one,
because that's when Rhode Island finally joins the Union, and
part of the leason Washington goes up there is of course,
to you know, welcome to the Union, We're so glad
to have you guys, And some of it is to
sort of shore up support for his own political program.
(30:32):
What he probably wasn't expecting was that he was going
to run into a guy named Moses Satius, brother of Gersham,
who is the leader of the Jewish community in Newport,
Rhode Island. Moses Satious had been a Loyalist at one point,
but he switches signs and once the war is over,
(30:54):
he sort of becomes He's the most one of the
most prominent Jews in Newport, functionally president of the congregation.
And they write a letter to Washington because in road,
remember in Rhode Island, there had been attempts in the
previous century to seize all Jewish property, and so they
don't have and Rhode Island again doesn't at that time
(31:15):
have many religious freedom guarantees in its laws. So Moses
and the Jews of Newport are writing a letter to
Washington to ask them, are you going to protect our rights?
We have these federal rights under the Constitution? Are you
going to recognize them because we feel like we've earned them.
(31:37):
Is this really going to be a place where everyone
has the same religious rights?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
If you wouldn't mind, could you read that letter to us.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
To George Washington from the Synagogue of Rhode Island. Permit
the children of the Stock of Abraham to approach you
with the most cordial affection and esteem for your person
and merits, and to join with our fellow citizens in
welcoming you to Newport with pleasure. We reflect on those days,
those days of difficulty and danger, when the God of Israel,
(32:09):
who delivered David from the peril of the sword, shielded
your head in the day of battle, and we rejoice
to think that the same spirit who rested in the
bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel, enabling him to preside
over the provinces of the Babylonish Empire, rests and will
ever rest upon you, enabling you to discharge the arduous
duties of chief Magistrate in these states. Deprived, as we
(32:31):
heretofore have been, of the invaluable rights of free citizens,
We now, with a deep sense of gratitude to the
almighty disposer of all events, behold a government erected by
the majesty of the people, a government which, to bigotry,
gives no sanction, to persecution, no assistance, but generously offering
(32:53):
to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship, deeming
every one of whatever our nation, tongue, or language, equal
parts of the great governmental machine. This so ample and
extensive federal union, whose basis is philanthropy, mutual confidence, and
public virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work
(33:16):
of the Great God, who ruleth in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, doing whatever
seemeth him good. For all the blessings of civil and
religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration,
we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient
of days, the Great Preserver of men, beseeching him that
(33:37):
the Angel who conducted our forefathers through the wilderness into
the promised land, may graciously conduct you through all the
difficulties and dangers of this mortal life. And when, like Joshua,
full of days and full of honor, you are gathered
to your fathers, may you be admitted into the heavenly
paradise to partake of the water of life and the
tree of immortality.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's just beautiful. And this is Washington reply.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Gentlemen, 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 a like liberty of conscience and
immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration
is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence
(34:23):
of one class of people that another enjoy 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
(34:44):
all occasions their effectual support. He continues, May the children
of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land
continue to merit and enjoy the good will of all
of the other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety
under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall
(35:05):
be none to make him afraid. Hey, the Father of
all mercy, scatter light and not darkness in our paths.
They make us all, in our several vocations, useful here
and in his own due time and way, everlastingly happy.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Talk about that, I get shells reading that. I think
it is so profound to me for two reasons. One
is that it sets up an ideal, and we all
know that the ideals of freedom are not fully realized
in the revolution. We know that the country doesn't come
close to giving everyone here citizenship. But what Satius and
(35:43):
Washington do in these letters is they're setting up that standard.
The goal is that you have a country where there
is to bigotry, no sanction, to persecution, no assistance, where
everyone is going to be judged on the kind of
citizen they are, not on what kind of beliefs they have,
not on who their parents are, as a standard to
(36:04):
live up to. It's been very influential for me, and
I think it's been influential for a lot of other people,
both successful and unsuccessful, and trying to secure that ideal,
to make that freedom a real thing. And it's nice
to see that Satius is actually succeeds in it. The
other thing that I think is so significant is that
we often there's so much talk about what the founding
(36:27):
fathers believed, and you know, where did they go to church?
What did they think the relationship between church and state was. Well,
this is where Washington, as we Jews say, the big
Macha Washington comes right out and he says it. He says,
you know, this is not a place where we're going
to judge you based on your theological beliefs. All we
(36:47):
require is that you demean yourself as good citizens. And
they're Satius saying we have all alike liberty of conscience
and immunities of citizenship, deeming everyone, whatever, nation tonger language,
equal parts of the great governmental machine. For seventeen ninety one,
that's really remarkable to say, we're gonna put it together
(37:11):
a functioning country here, guys. We're not going to require
people to take an oath to a certain god, or
to a certain church, or to a certain ceremony. We're
gonna take the oath to the country.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special
thanks to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches history and religion
at Auburn University. He's the author of A Promised Land,
Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom.
Go to Amazon with the usual suspects and pick up
(37:47):
a copy of this terrific book. And my goodness, those
two letters between Washington and Satius set a standard for
the nation to live up to and to secure an
ideal worthy of a new nation anchored in liberty. The
story of the Jews in America and how they fought
and participated in our revolution.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we'd love to tell stories about America's founding. We
also love to tell stories about America's faith heritage, and
this next story combines both. Here to tell the story
about Jews in America around the time of the Revolution
(00:34):
is Adam Jortner. He's a professor of history and religion
at Auburn University. His book A Promised Land, Jewish Patriots,
the American Revolution and the Birth of Religious Freedom. Professor Jortner,
what brought you to study this idea of Jews in
the Revolution. I'm a real history buff. I had no idea,
(00:57):
no clue that Jews had been a part of the
fighting of the war effort.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Yeah, it sounds fake. It sounds like a comedy routine.
I'll tell you about Jews and the Revolution. That's the
shocking thing to me. And the more I read about it,
the more there was to find about it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Talk about how you came to write about this subject.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I wrote a book about Mormons, I've written a book
about Native American prophets. And my wife was pregnant with
my second kid, I was very nervous, and I was like, well,
I need a small project. I'll work on Jews and
the Revolution, because that won't that won't take very long.
My second son's now ten years old, so it did
take a while. But what I found out was, not
(01:40):
only are there Jews in the United States during the Revolution,
they're really passionate patriots. For the most part, A lot
of Jews rush to sign up, and a lot of
them end up because of the way the revolutionary war
works out, a lot of them end up in the
same city. They're all in Philadelphia, and they form this synagogue.
(02:02):
They reform the local synagogue Mikvah Israel in Philadelphia in
the seventeen eighties, which makes them one of the very
first kind of national religious groups. So not only is there,
you know, Jews in the Revolution, not only are Jews
part of the American religious history, they're there from the
(02:23):
very beginning of the Republic. And that really made me
stop and say, I need to know about these guys.
I need to really think about religion and the revolution,
just just to get the basic question of well, what
were people doing, what did they believe? What kind of
beliefs are bouncing around there in Bunker Hill and Valley
(02:44):
Forge and all these places.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
You said they came to Philadelphia. Where did the Jews
come from? And when were the first Jews here in America?
When did the Jews arrive and why did they arrive?
Did they arrive for the same reason the Puritans arrived.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They all end up in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War
because most of the cities they're living in, Savannah, Charleston,
New York. By seventeen eighty those have all been taken
over by the British. So Philadelphia is sort of the
last city standing that still has a functioning synagogue. If
(03:21):
you want to be patriotic and you're a Jew, if
you can get to Philadelphia, you got to get there.
And this is something you know in terms of studying Jews.
Judaism requires there's stuff you need for Judaism. You need
to have a torah, you need to have a minion,
and these things are things that are a Methodist or
an Episcopalian doesn't necessarily need. So a lot of Jews
(03:45):
end up in Philadelphia. But Jews have been in the
Americas ever since Europeans got here. There were Jews coming
over when Spain invaded with the Aztecs. Of course, Judaism
is banned in Spain, so a number of Jews are
hiding out in New Mexico in the fifteen hundreds, so
(04:07):
this is a very old tradition. In North America, Jews
end up in the British colonies, places like New York
and Georgia, mostly as a result of accidents. A lot
of some of those Jews were living in Brazil when
it was under Dutch control and the Dutch offered some
kind of religious freedom. Then Portugal takes over, so a
(04:30):
bunch of Brazilian Jews end up heading to New York City.
And there are other cases where various Jews from Britain
or Jews who have been hiding in Spain sort of
end up in British North America. They know British North
America is a better place for religious freedom than Spain
(04:51):
under the Spanish monarchy, but it's still not a place
where religious freedom is full and celebrated. There are still
state churches in the British colonies. If you're Jewish, you're
not a subject, you're a resident, and the rules are
different for residents. So I mean, I think most of
(05:12):
the Jews end up. I mean, there aren't a ton
of them. There may be something like one tenth of
one percent of the population, a tiny, tiny number, but
they have built several synagogues by the time the Revolutionary
war is underway, and people who are visitors to the
colonies are sort of shocked that, you know, there's no
political equality, but they are shocked that there are Jews
(05:35):
in the taverns along with everybody else. They're surprised that
in the day today life they don't see the kinds
of distinctions between Christians and Jews that you might find
in say, Central Europe or Poland there isn't that kind
of distinction that's made.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
And it's not just the Jews who are sort of
residents but not citizens. You write a bit about the
Catholics and the Baptists, talk about that as well, because
it's a sort of an alliance little form as the
revolution occurs, where a war ultimately brings a lot of
these folks together seeking a common ideal, which would be
religious freedom. But that wasn't also why they fought either
(06:14):
to talk about both of those things.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
The thing that I think I found out writing this
book is that religious freedom was not a given in
seventeen seventy six, it wasn't that the British colonies were
this place where everybody had religious freedom, and then the
Revolution just kind of codifies it. Religious freedom is something
you have to work for, it something you have to build.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And you're listening to Professor Adam Jortner, and he's a
professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and his
book A Promised Land is a must read. I urge
you to go to Amazon or the usual suspects, pick
up the book, and you'll learn a lot about the
founding of this nation and the role Jews played in it.
And my goodness, we're learning something already, the fact that
(06:56):
there were Jews in America at the time, that Jews
were in in this patriotic struggle, and that so many
Jews ended up in the city of Philadelphia because it
was the one place where as the war was beginning
to commence, they felt free and they felt secure to
represent and fight on behalf of and for their country
(07:17):
and more importantly, for religious freedom.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
When we come back, we're.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Going to learn more about the state of religious freedom
in the United States, and so much more when we
continue with our American Stories. This is Lee Habib, host
of our American Stories, the show where America is the
star and the American people, and we do it all
from the heart of the South Oxford, Mississippi. But we
(07:41):
truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will
always be free to listen to, but they're not free
to make. If you love what you hear, consider making
a tax deductible donation to our American Stories. Go to
our American Stories dot com. Give a little, give a lot.
That's our American Stories dot com. And we continue with
(08:10):
our American Stories and with the story of the Jews
around the American Revolution and how Jews played a part
in our nation's founding and the Jews had been here
well for a very long time. Before picking up where
we last left off is Adam Jortner. He's a professor
of history and religion at Auburn University.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
So what you have in the British colonies, and of
course these are not equal places. We know slavery is
legal in every British colony, even Massachusetts has enslaved people.
And it's not a world where it's assumed that each
human being has natural rights and Therefore, it's not a
(08:54):
big problem to say, well, there's going to be a
state church. The church sort of varies place to place. Congregationalist,
Puritan in Connecticut, and it's Episcopalian in Virginia and so on.
But these are all connected to the Empire. All these
state churches go back to the center of power in London,
(09:15):
and when the church is supported by a state, then
the church will back up what the state wants. Other
smarter people than me have pointed this out. When do
we get real abolitionist churches in the United States. It's
after the state churches have gone away. So the state
churches want stability, they want peace, and they want the
social order. That's how it works. So if you are
(09:36):
not a member of the state church, depending on the colony,
you just don't have the same religious rights. This is
the case with Jews. With Catholics Baptists, that's a bit
of a surprise for many of my students down here
in Alabama. But Baptists in Virginia are technically not allowed
(09:56):
to preach without permission from the episcopalia in the Anglican
state Church. Now, what is that my students always wanted
to know what does that mean. Does that mean they
go around hunting up the Baptists. Well, no, The way
it works is like this. If you're a Baptist preacher
or you attend Baptist services, you got to pay taxes,
and you pay a tax to support the state church.
(10:18):
And then unless you want your preacher to go hungry,
and if you want a meeting house to meet in,
you got to also pay for your own church. So
you're paying for two churches, only one of which you use.
Second thing is everybody's got a If you're a Baptist preacher,
you gotta be licensed and known by the state. And
of course the state can come in any time it
wants and says this is not official church, state church business.
(10:42):
And of course when would the officials do this. They
do it if any Baptists become troublesome, particularly if a
Baptist starts preaching against enslavement, or if a Baptist starts
preaching about freedom of conscience, that is the right to
choose your own pastor then the next Sunday you can
be sure the sheriff might show up and say, oh,
(11:04):
this is not a legal meeting, or someone might as
sometimes happened, throw a beehive into your services and then
nobody investigates it, or your preacher might get arrested. This
happens a couple of times when the preachers are arrested.
So Baptists don't have that kind of When we talk
about them not having full freedom, we really do mean
(11:25):
and they're not rounded up, but they're not allowed to
worship and for the powers to be that's okay because
they're not worshiping the right way. Same thing happens with
Jews in Rhode Island. There's a Jewish community in the
town of Newport, Rhode Island, and again they are allowed
to be there their residents, but there's a couple of
(11:47):
times when the governor comes in and tries to seize
all Jewish property based on the idea that well, this
is a Christian kingdom. That means Jews don't have property rights.
And they work it out, but that had to be
pre scary. And when one Jew in Rhode Island by
the name of Aaron Lopez, he's trying to become a subject.
(12:08):
He wants to become an Englishman in the colonies, Rhode
Island won't let him, so you know, it's the same situation.
And this is true Catholics in Maryland. Catholics could practice,
but not outside and not in it. You had to
be in a private house if you wanted to worship
and you were Catholic, you dared to be Catholic in Maryland.
(12:29):
This is the situation at the beginning of the revolution.
And here is something I sort of realized, which is,
what do the revolutionaries do before they write the Declaration
of Independence, before they write the constitution, before before even
before they fire a shot. What they are saying seventeen
seventy four, seventy seventy five is the British government is
(12:49):
no longer valid here. They have violated our rights, and
we break from them. And once the patriots say that,
then all of those rules about which church you go
to don't apply to the patriots.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Again, we can argue about this, what are the legal details,
but the reality is if you were Jewish and you
wanted to be a patriot and sign up, you can.
And Mordecai Cheftall in Georgia becomes leader of kind of
the de facto government of Savannah, even though he's Jewish,
because it's not under British control anymore. The same thing
(13:25):
happens with a guy named Charles Carroll in Maryland who
becomes a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He couldn't
hold office in Maryland because he's Catholic, but the Patriots
don't have those rules. Come one, come all, and this
is sort of how the Patriots. They have a lot
of support from these minority religious groups, and support from
all kinds of different people, but this is sort of
(13:48):
how these minority groups who had been legally banned from
full participation in the Patriot movement they're in.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
How did the Revolution change Jewish.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Well, first of all, it gave Jews freedom to form
their own synagogues. In most European and colonial places, and
in Europe itself, there's one synagogue per town. But that's
not going to fly with the First Amendment because you
have freedom of religion, and what you get is actually
multiplying synagogue. So that really, for the first time in
(14:24):
the history of European Jewry and American Jewry, you have
more than one synagogue to choose from, which is not
always great because there aren't that many Jews in a
lot of these towns, but it's a real expression of freedom,
which is to say, we're going to choose to worship
this way and be Jews, and y'all can choose to
worship a different way and be Jews, and the state
(14:47):
and the rabbis cannot come in and stop them. So
it leads to a proliferation of voices about Judaism. The
other thing that is very interesting is that it.
Speaker 4 (14:57):
Leads to the first the first Jewish critiques of Christianity
in hundreds and hundreds of years, because freedom of the
press meant that Jews could finally write about that.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
And of course there are Christian groups who say this
is great. This religious freedom allows us to preach to Jews,
because in Europe it's hard to preach the Gospel to
Jews because they don't have full rights, they're being oppressed,
they won't be able to hear the real message of
Jesus Christ. But here in the United States there are
(15:33):
several organizations founded specifically too preach to Jews. So, okay,
we've gotten rid of the union of Church and States,
so this is a great time to preach. And they
start publishing books and Jews kind of respond and most
of the stuff is actually very very polite and very tepid,
but it does sort of lay out the foundations of
(15:53):
a new set of arguments between Jews and Christians based
on theological issues. And there are some some real whoppers
in there where Jewish leaders say, well, we believe in
the promises of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and
they bring up things that they don't agree with in
(16:14):
the New Testament, and they talk. They're able to openly
talk about you know, when we find Christian missionaries in
the doorways of our synagogues, this is really annoying. This
doesn't encourage us to convert. It is a way for
Jews and Christians to speak to each other on what
(16:35):
are very touchy issues, but they're able to speak openly.
They're able to sort of sort of speak as equals.
And there's even times when Jews and Christians will debate
each other in public and then nothing happens to either
of them, which again is a just a huge step forward.
It leads to a real flowering of Jews thinking about, Okay,
(17:01):
now that we have religious choice, why Judaism, what is
it that makes our faith distinctive? So it leads to
a lot of self analysis of Jews, and that in
turn is part of what makes new synagogues.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
And of course all this debate within and among Jews
and Christians, well, this battle of ideas was not only
good for the churches and the synagogues, it was good
for America. And when we come back more from Adam
Jordner on the story of the Jews in America during
the Revolution. Here on our American stories, and we continue
(18:09):
with our American stories and with the story of the
Jews around the American Revolution. Picking up where we last
left off is Adam Jortner and he teaches history and
religion at Auburn University, and his book A Promised Land
is a must read. I urge you to go to
Amazon or the usual suspects pick up the book. You
(18:29):
start your book in July of seventeen seventy six with
a man named Jonas Phillips shipping a copy of a
very dangerous document across the Atlantic.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Who was he and what was that dangerous document?
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Jonas Phillips is a Jewish merchant. He's living in Philadelphia.
He's a patriot, and he's sending the Declaration of Independence
to some friends back in Europe. And he writes the
letter in Yiddish, because again you're not allowed. It's illegal
to ship the Declaration of Independence. It's an illegal document.
(19:05):
So he writes the letter in Yiddish. We have a
copy of it, fortunately that it got saved because it
got captured by the British. And he says this. He says,
the American army is full of one hundred thousand rook
them and rookhim is Yiddish for tough guys. And the
British found this letter, could not translate the Yiddish and
assumed it was written in some kind of code, and
(19:27):
it got stuck in British archives for one hundred and
fifty years. But I think it's really I love this story.
And Phillips goes on to become president of the synagogue
in Philadelphia, funds money for naval operations, joins the militia.
He's a really serious patriot, and he's a guy who
speaks both Yiddish and English, a very devoted Jew as well.
(19:51):
And it's seventeen seventy six and the declaration is just
hot off the presses. It's an example of how Jews
saw this moment of revolution, this moment of becoming a
separate nation to cleave to the idea that all people
(20:11):
are born naturally free. This is something that resonates in
the Jewish mind, and it resonates right here in the
United States. I think one of the reasons why Jews
and the Revolution seems so odd is because, of course,
the vast majority of American Jews are descended from later
generations who come in the end of the nineteenth century
(20:34):
and who are inspired by, among other reasons, this idea
of freedom. But I also want to point out that
it was also inspiring for Jews who were already there
and who were able to come to the aid of
the cause. And Phillips is deeply involved in the war.
(20:55):
He's deeply involved in creating this new American Synagogue, and
later he's deeply involved writing to Washington and the Constitutional
Convention about hey, let's get full rights for Jews and
have no religious restrictions.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Let's talk about Jews that were loyal to the crown too,
Because look, Ben Franklin had a war inside his own house.
His son was the Royal governor of New Jersey and
sided with the Crown. And Ben Franklin did, and his
son ended up in jail. A lot of people don't
know that, and they never were to speak again. Were
there Jews that was sympathetic to the Crown and was
(21:34):
this a minority? Was it evenly split as many historians
believe Americans were. I think that many historians believe it
was sort of a third for the Crown, a third
with the Patriots, and a third hiding under their tables.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Wondering what would happen.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Talk about what you think that mix was within the
Jewish community.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
First of all, everybody, remember, if it's before nineteen fifty,
numbers are squishy, which I mean to say, when we
say X amount of Americans believe this, X amount of
Americans did that. The numbers are always squishy because there's
no there's no polling data. But here is what the
(22:13):
evidence sort of suggests. American Jews serve in the Patriot
Army in the exact proportion to their numbers in the population,
which is to say that you know, again, about one
tenth of one percent of Americans are Jewish, about one
tenth of one percent of the American army and militias
(22:34):
are Jewish. That probably indicates a very high degree of
alliance to the Patriot cause. Because no Jew in America
would have had a military tradition, because Jews are either
banned in European armies or they're banned from the officer class.
(22:56):
In Europe, virtually all the armies fight under a state church.
State church. You cannot have a Jew command a Christian. Russia,
for example, lets Jews into the army, and they're so
open they let Jews in at age twelve. So everyone
who saw a kid in the Russian army knows who
they can be anti submittic to, and of course think
(23:16):
they can't be officers. So there's no existing tradition of
Jewish military service in the United States. But you get
this very high level of participation that seems to suggest
that there is a strong patriot backing. Of course, it's
not always true. There are guys who live, particularly in
(23:36):
New York, who stick around. In fact, the New York
Synagogue itself splits the leader of the synagogue, a guy
named Grisham Satius when the British invade leads people out
of New York into Connecticut to establish a kind of synagogue,
a Jewish community in exile, and a few people sort
(23:57):
of stay back in New York and actually there's a Hessian,
one of the Germans who comes over with the British.
There's a Hessian Jew who ends up leading the synagogue
during the Revolutionary War while the British British occupy New
York for almost the whole war. Interesting that guy's name
is Abraham Zunz. And when the war is over and
(24:19):
the Jews come back to the patriot Jews come back,
they actually ask Zuntz to stay on as a member
of the board. And zunts is like this, well, I
could go back to Europe, but this seems I think
this is a good thing you guys have going. I'm paraphrasing.
So there are loyalist Jews who do stick around. What
I found was interesting is I didn't find as many
(24:41):
of them. And of course that might be because you know,
loyalists don't as often have their stuff saved. But what
I do think is interesting is that, at least in
the places where we can trace this in New York's
the best place, the breakdown between loyalists and patriots doesn't
seem to correspond to any previous divisions within the synagogue.
(25:02):
In other words, it's not like the people who preferred
their services in the Sephardic style joined one side, and
people who preferred it in the Ashkenasic style joined the
other side. Or the families who had fought between you,
because of course, you know it's a religious organization, families fight.
The breakdown between loyalist and patriot doesn't follow those divides,
(25:22):
which again I think suggests that American Jews are thinking
about this not as a way to settle old scores
or to further their pre existing agenda, but to say, oh,
this is a new, interesting problem, this is an opportunity.
How do we really think about the idea that all
people are created equal? How do we really feel about
(25:43):
the idea that we should be able to choose have
a voice in creating our own government. So there are
Jewish loyalists. I don't think there are as many as
Jewish patriots. But again, if you want hard numbers, those
do not exist.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
And you've been listening to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches
history and religion at Auburn University. His book A Promised Land,
Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious
Freedom is available at Amazon or wherever you get your books.
And we learn so much here about religious freedom in
this country and the revolutionary period. And it's not as
(26:23):
tidy as we'd come to believe from anything we've been taught.
I know, at least for me, I learned a lot
just listening thus far. And by the way, we hear
about not just the Jews role in the revolution, but
particular people too. Jonas Phillips, for one, a serious patriot,
and my goodness, we learn he even took a chance
(26:44):
shipping a copy of the Declaration of Independence overseas then Yiddish,
because the king thought this document was dangerous.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And my goodness, the king was right.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
A document like this was dangerous to kings, monarchs, tyrants everywhere.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
In the world.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
When we come back, more of the story of Jews
in the revolution here on our American stories, and we
(27:37):
continue with our American stories and with Adam Jortner. He's
a professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and
we're talking about Jews during the American Revolution, their participation,
and their fight to secure our liberties. Let's talk about
George Washington. He did a major first in world history
(27:59):
that is spoken of very often. He appointed Jews as
military officers that never happened in Europe. Talk about how
this made Jewish people feel about Washington.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, Washington appoints people to higher offices without regard for
their religion, and that in itself is a remarkable achievement.
And Washington doesn't write very much about this. It could
just be he needed the bodies. But here's the thing,
so does everybody else, his contemporaries. You know, white European
(28:34):
soldiers also need soldiers and good officers, but they allow
this discrimination to take place and Washington does not. That
probably secures Washington a real place in the heart of
early US Jews, to the extent that the Richmond Synagogue
will eventually write a prayer for George Washington, and you
(28:57):
know it's for Washington because it's spell It's acrostic in Hebrew,
so the letters spell out Washington because there's no w
sound in Hebrews. It's a prayer they write, and it
spells out the letters in Washington's name using the Hebrew alphabet.
But he has a real place in the hearts of
the Jews, and he becomes a kind of touchstone for
(29:20):
what he then later writes about how he doesn't see
any difference between a Christian citizen and a Jewish citizen.
For the record, he writes this for all kinds of
different minority religions. Washington did seem quite serious about the
fact that religious freedom meant religious freedom. No single sect,
(29:42):
no single church, no single religious tradition was to have
pre eminence.
Speaker 1 (29:48):
Let's talk about George Washington's visit to Rhode Island. It
occurs in seventeen ninety Why is he in Rhode Island.
That's a long trip from Washington, DC and his home
at Mount Vernon, And who's this character to the end
up exchanging these beautiful letters which we're about to hear
the audience is about to hear. But set up this
story for us. Why is Washington in Rhode Island? To
(30:09):
begin with?
Speaker 2 (30:10):
So President Washington goes to Rhode Island in seventeen ninety one,
because that's when Rhode Island finally joins the Union, and
part of the leason Washington goes up there is of course,
to you know, welcome to the Union, We're so glad
to have you guys, And some of it is to
sort of shore up support for his own political program.
(30:32):
What he probably wasn't expecting was that he was going
to run into a guy named Moses Satius, brother of Gersham,
who is the leader of the Jewish community in Newport,
Rhode Island. Moses Satious had been a Loyalist at one point,
but he switches signs and once the war is over,
(30:54):
he sort of becomes He's the most one of the
most prominent Jews in Newport, functionally president of the congregation.
And they write a letter to Washington because in road,
remember in Rhode Island, there had been attempts in the
previous century to seize all Jewish property, and so they
don't have and Rhode Island again doesn't at that time
(31:15):
have many religious freedom guarantees in its laws. So Moses
and the Jews of Newport are writing a letter to
Washington to ask them, are you going to protect our rights?
We have these federal rights under the Constitution? Are you
going to recognize them because we feel like we've earned them.
(31:37):
Is this really going to be a place where everyone
has the same religious rights?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
If you wouldn't mind, could you read that letter to us.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
To George Washington from the Synagogue of Rhode Island. Permit
the children of the Stock of Abraham to approach you
with the most cordial affection and esteem for your person
and merits, and to join with our fellow citizens in
welcoming you to Newport with pleasure. We reflect on those days,
those days of difficulty and danger, when the God of Israel,
(32:09):
who delivered David from the peril of the sword, shielded
your head in the day of battle, and we rejoice
to think that the same spirit who rested in the
bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel, enabling him to preside
over the provinces of the Babylonish Empire, rests and will
ever rest upon you, enabling you to discharge the arduous
duties of chief Magistrate in these states. Deprived, as we
(32:31):
heretofore have been, of the invaluable rights of free citizens,
We now, with a deep sense of gratitude to the
almighty disposer of all events, behold a government erected by
the majesty of the people, a government which, to bigotry,
gives no sanction, to persecution, no assistance, but generously offering
(32:53):
to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship, deeming
every one of whatever our nation, tongue, or language, equal
parts of the great governmental machine. This so ample and
extensive federal union, whose basis is philanthropy, mutual confidence, and
public virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work
(33:16):
of the Great God, who ruleth in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, doing whatever
seemeth him good. For all the blessings of civil and
religious liberty which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration,
we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient
of days, the Great Preserver of men, beseeching him that
(33:37):
the Angel who conducted our forefathers through the wilderness into
the promised land, may graciously conduct you through all the
difficulties and dangers of this mortal life. And when, like Joshua,
full of days and full of honor, you are gathered
to your fathers, may you be admitted into the heavenly
paradise to partake of the water of life and the
tree of immortality.
Speaker 3 (33:58):
It's just beautiful. And this is Washington reply.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Gentlemen, 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 a like liberty of conscience and
immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration
is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence
(34:23):
of one class of people that another enjoy 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
(34:44):
all occasions their effectual support. He continues, May the children
of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land
continue to merit and enjoy the good will of all
of the other inhabitants, while everyone shall sit in safety
under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall
(35:05):
be none to make him afraid. Hey, the Father of
all mercy, scatter light and not darkness in our paths.
They make us all, in our several vocations, useful here
and in his own due time and way, everlastingly happy.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Talk about that, I get shells reading that. I think
it is so profound to me for two reasons. One
is that it sets up an ideal, and we all
know that the ideals of freedom are not fully realized
in the revolution. We know that the country doesn't come
close to giving everyone here citizenship. But what Satius and
(35:43):
Washington do in these letters is they're setting up that standard.
The goal is that you have a country where there
is to bigotry, no sanction, to persecution, no assistance, where
everyone is going to be judged on the kind of
citizen they are, not on what kind of beliefs they have,
not on who their parents are, as a standard to
(36:04):
live up to. It's been very influential for me, and
I think it's been influential for a lot of other people,
both successful and unsuccessful, and trying to secure that ideal,
to make that freedom a real thing. And it's nice
to see that Satius is actually succeeds in it. The
other thing that I think is so significant is that
we often there's so much talk about what the founding
(36:27):
fathers believed, and you know, where did they go to church?
What did they think the relationship between church and state was. Well,
this is where Washington, as we Jews say, the big
Macha Washington comes right out and he says it. He says,
you know, this is not a place where we're going
to judge you based on your theological beliefs. All we
(36:47):
require is that you demean yourself as good citizens. And
they're Satius saying we have all alike liberty of conscience
and immunities of citizenship, deeming everyone, whatever, nation tonger language,
equal parts of the great governmental machine. For seventeen ninety one,
that's really remarkable to say, we're gonna put it together
(37:11):
a functioning country here, guys. We're not going to require
people to take an oath to a certain god, or
to a certain church, or to a certain ceremony. We're
gonna take the oath to the country.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
And a terrific job on the production and editing by
our own Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special
thanks to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches history and religion
at Auburn University. He's the author of A Promised Land,
Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom.
Go to Amazon with the usual suspects and pick up
(37:47):
a copy of this terrific book. And my goodness, those
two letters between Washington and Satius set a standard for
the nation to live up to and to secure an
ideal worthy of a new nation anchored in liberty. The
story of the Jews in America and how they fought
and participated in our revolution.
Speaker 3 (38:10):
Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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