Historic correspondence by President George Washington to a Jewish congregation in Rhode Island is the centerpiece of an exhibit in Philadelphia this summer.
The National Museum of American Jewish History said Thursday the privately owned 337-word letter is arguably the most important document in American Jewish history. The museum says the letter was written by Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, R.I., in August 1790.
Washington’s letter is addressed to “the children of the stock of Abraham.” It describes his vow for a government that “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
The exhibit opens July Fourth weekend. It also will include Washington’s correspondence to Quakers and other Jewish congregations and a Gilbert Stuart portrait of the president from the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
(Source: ABC News)
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3 Responses
I have been to this museum and read reviews about it and I can say that besides the name, there is nothing jewish about it: A) Bc I believe that the essence of Jews is Torah and it makes no mention of it. B) Many of the jews “honored” here are self hating jews who did nothing during the holocaust to save their brothers and sisters in Hitler’s fire!!!!!!!
The letter was in the form of a “loyal address” that reflected how English groups greeted a new monarch. What is remarkable is that at the time he wrote, Jews could not vote or hold office in any state. The Federal constitution, which Washington to a certain extent wrote (he chaired the convention) specifically prohibited religious tests for Federal offices. This was totally radical. If you want to pick one point in American history where the USA became “exceptional” this was it. Again, in the 18th century all colonies had state religions with limited civil rights to anyone not a member. About half had been “Judenrein” (a term not yet invented). Catholics and non-Christians had very limited rights, and even groups of Protestants had restricted lives in a colony other than their own (e.g. Anglicans in New England, Presbyterians and Baptists in Virgina).
The museum is a distortion of history. But that letter is probably the most important document in modern Jewish history, and arguably, in all of American history. It’s where “Freedom of religion” became clearly set as part of American culture.
at the time he wrote, Jews could not vote or hold office in any state
This is not true. There were some states in which this was the case, but in most states it wasn’t.
PA’s constitution of 1776 says “Nor can any man, who acknowledges the being of a God, be justly deprived or abridged of any civil right as a citizen, on account of his religious sentiments or peculiar mode of religious worship”. Jews could vote, and hold most offices, but they could not be members of the House of Representatives.
The Delaware constitution of 1776 says Jews can’t be members of the legislature, but it doesn’t say who can vote.
The Georgia constitution of 1777 says much the same: Jews can vote, but not be chosen as representatives. It doesn’t say anything about other offices.
The NJ constitution of 1776 says much the same.
Ditto for NC, 1776.
Same for SC, 1778.
I haven’t yet found a single state in which Jews couldn’t vote, though I also haven’t yet found one in which Jews could be representatives.
BTW, here’s where I found all these constitutions.