Yesterday in synagogue (because July 4th fell on Shabbat this year)I gave a little talk after the kiddush about two things. The origins in the Hebrew Bible for the concept of natural rights (that we are made in Gods image), and the dual gift of yesterday. One was the gift of Shabbat to The Jewish people, and the other was how this nation has been a gift to the Jewish people. It was the first non Jewish majority nation to give full and equal rights to Jews as Jews. Our nation has been a safe haven for Jews for a long time, and we have flourished here as nowhere else, at least until 1948. One small if significant example of American exceptionalism.
America's relationship with the Jewish people really is something I want to learn more about because, to be honest, my knowledge of that relationship really only extends to the 1920s or so (and it's really bare bones until the Second World War). But there is absolutely good reason that New York City is the most Jewish city in the world outside of Tel Aviv; our country has been profoundly good to the Jews, as you pointed out, especially compared to the savagery they have periodically faced in Europe and elsewhere over the centuries. I obviously hope we're not about to enter our own period and version of revived savagery, but I can understand why some Jews are so concerned (my theory about the most vociferous anti-Israel Jews is that that's their own way of expressing that concern and fear; but that's a whole other rabbit hole).
Johnathan Sarna of Brandeis University may be the preeminent scholar of Jewish life in the USA. He is a member of my daughter's synagogue in Newton MA. This past 4th he gave a talk to the congregation about Jewish history in America. I wish that I had been there. She said it was an excellent lecture. He has written about U.S.Grant and Lincoln's relationships with American Jewry, among other subjects. I think that his works may be the place to start
I enjoy your work and this essay has strong elements, especially the immigrant perspective and pushback against negative valence/oikophobia. That said, it leans into a propositional view of American identity and largely sidesteps the Anglo-Protestant and Judeo-Christian foundations (English common law, biblical views of rights and dignity, Puritan-influenced habits) that made the experiment viable. Those cultural fundamentals enabled the pluralism, not the other way around.
I've been neck deep in that context and I gotta say, you're right to point it out; I do believe the American interpretation of Protestantism was a major avenue toward what we became as a culture, given that our Founders leaned into the Enlightenment values that were, ultimately, influenced by the most individualist aspects of the Reformation. While our Constitutional emphasis on freedom of religion is more universal than would typically be appreciated by many Protestant sects, especially those that predated the Colonies, we can't pretend our intellectual and cultural heritage isn't inextricably linked to those traditions. While I believe our ability to divorce ourselves from any religion is a fundamental right (and probably good for at least some people), we need to give credit where it is due.
(This is probably my most "conservative" belief, in the sense that I'm only willing to oppose the proposition that we are a "Christian nation" so far; in principle we are not, but in terms of intellectual heritage, we absolutely are. Let's thank the historian Tom Holland and his masterful book Dominion for convincing me of this lol)
Thanks, and to be clear, I am just “calling it like I see it”, not espousing some preferred view of history, which seems to be the norm these days. Our founders were students of history, very much including the Old Testament, the Greeks and the Romans. When one actually reads what they wrote, it is quite clear.
I’m not sure about Williams but James Davenport was definitely a major force that could only happen in America over a quarter century before our founding!
Thank you for the post. That was a pleasure
Yesterday in synagogue (because July 4th fell on Shabbat this year)I gave a little talk after the kiddush about two things. The origins in the Hebrew Bible for the concept of natural rights (that we are made in Gods image), and the dual gift of yesterday. One was the gift of Shabbat to The Jewish people, and the other was how this nation has been a gift to the Jewish people. It was the first non Jewish majority nation to give full and equal rights to Jews as Jews. Our nation has been a safe haven for Jews for a long time, and we have flourished here as nowhere else, at least until 1948. One small if significant example of American exceptionalism.
America's relationship with the Jewish people really is something I want to learn more about because, to be honest, my knowledge of that relationship really only extends to the 1920s or so (and it's really bare bones until the Second World War). But there is absolutely good reason that New York City is the most Jewish city in the world outside of Tel Aviv; our country has been profoundly good to the Jews, as you pointed out, especially compared to the savagery they have periodically faced in Europe and elsewhere over the centuries. I obviously hope we're not about to enter our own period and version of revived savagery, but I can understand why some Jews are so concerned (my theory about the most vociferous anti-Israel Jews is that that's their own way of expressing that concern and fear; but that's a whole other rabbit hole).
Johnathan Sarna of Brandeis University may be the preeminent scholar of Jewish life in the USA. He is a member of my daughter's synagogue in Newton MA. This past 4th he gave a talk to the congregation about Jewish history in America. I wish that I had been there. She said it was an excellent lecture. He has written about U.S.Grant and Lincoln's relationships with American Jewry, among other subjects. I think that his works may be the place to start
I enjoy your work and this essay has strong elements, especially the immigrant perspective and pushback against negative valence/oikophobia. That said, it leans into a propositional view of American identity and largely sidesteps the Anglo-Protestant and Judeo-Christian foundations (English common law, biblical views of rights and dignity, Puritan-influenced habits) that made the experiment viable. Those cultural fundamentals enabled the pluralism, not the other way around.
I've been neck deep in that context and I gotta say, you're right to point it out; I do believe the American interpretation of Protestantism was a major avenue toward what we became as a culture, given that our Founders leaned into the Enlightenment values that were, ultimately, influenced by the most individualist aspects of the Reformation. While our Constitutional emphasis on freedom of religion is more universal than would typically be appreciated by many Protestant sects, especially those that predated the Colonies, we can't pretend our intellectual and cultural heritage isn't inextricably linked to those traditions. While I believe our ability to divorce ourselves from any religion is a fundamental right (and probably good for at least some people), we need to give credit where it is due.
(This is probably my most "conservative" belief, in the sense that I'm only willing to oppose the proposition that we are a "Christian nation" so far; in principle we are not, but in terms of intellectual heritage, we absolutely are. Let's thank the historian Tom Holland and his masterful book Dominion for convincing me of this lol)
Thanks, and to be clear, I am just “calling it like I see it”, not espousing some preferred view of history, which seems to be the norm these days. Our founders were students of history, very much including the Old Testament, the Greeks and the Romans. When one actually reads what they wrote, it is quite clear.
Could we then argue that Roger Williams was the first true American?
I also loved Tom Holland's Dominion.
I’m not sure about Williams but James Davenport was definitely a major force that could only happen in America over a quarter century before our founding!