This Thanksgiving, three generations of my household will drink a champagne toast, eat the hors d’oeuvres that my mom used to make and my grandchildren now assist produce, deal with the turkey that can succumb to my inexpert slicing, after which transfer on to the pecan and pumpkin pies.
However first, as we’ve got for many years now, we’ll learn George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Jewish congregation of Newport, Rhode Island. The letter contains his declaration that the U.S. authorities presents “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no help.” It’s usually quoted, most not too long ago by Deborah Lipstadt, the federal government’s particular envoy to watch and counter anti-Semitism, on the massive pro-Israel rally in Washington, D.C., on November 14.
We additionally learn the preliminary letter of greeting to Washington from Moses Seixas, the warden of Newport’s Touro Synagogue (which we attended after I taught on the Naval Warfare School). The event was the primary president’s stately tour of the brand new nation in the summertime of 1790, when native dignitaries like Seixas would prolong salutations and he would graciously reply.
Every time we learn the letters, a number of qualities of this alternate stand out.
For one factor, it was Seixas who first used the well-known phrase. It bears repeating in full:
Disadvantaged as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Residents, we now (with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all occasions) behold a Authorities, erected by the Majesty of the Individuals—a Authorities, which to bigotry offers no sanction, to persecution no help—however generously affording to All liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship.
“To bigotry no sanction, to persecution no help,” in different phrases, mirrored the Jews of Newport’s enjoyment of a brand new actuality, not an announcement of a brand new or unique coverage by the president. They acknowledged that the bedrock of the brand new nation lay in a basic equality of citizenship beneath liberty.
Washington preferred the phrase a lot, nevertheless, that he repeated it again in his response:
It’s now no extra that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of 1 class of individuals, that one other loved the train of their inherent pure rights. For fortunately the Authorities of the US, which supplies to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no help requires solely that they who stay beneath its safety ought to demean themselves pretty much as good residents, in giving it on all events their effectual assist.
That’s the level: not spiritual toleration, however pure proper. Eight years earlier, the enlightened Emperor Joseph II of Austria had issued his deservedly applauded Toleranzpatent, later expanded by a Toleranzedikt, that gave Jews every kind of rights they’d heretofore lacked. However the phrase was tolerance, and it was a present from the federal government.
If one needs to know the fierce patriotism that has so usually animated American Jews, look thus far of origin. On this nation, we didn’t should earn our rights, or meekly obtain them; they’re, and all the time have been, ours by proper. Jews have recognized, as Washington stated, that rights suggest obligations as residents, which maybe helps clarify their pervasive and long-standing engagement in public affairs.
So long as the US stays the US, so it will likely be. It’s in contrast to our historical past in another state. Look carefully and you will discover within the Jewish historical past of different nations phrases like toleration and emancipation, permission and encouragement, not inherent pure rights. It’s the huge factor for which my household, no less than, is profoundly grateful throughout this season.
However Washington’s heat response to Seixas accommodates one other sentiment that will probably be extra troubling this yr.
Could the Kids of the Inventory of Abraham, who dwell on this land, proceed to advantage and benefit from the good will of the opposite Inhabitants; whereas each one shall sit in security beneath his personal vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
That quote, from the prophet Micah 4:4, rings hole this yr. The FBI director not too long ago declared that totally 60 % of religiously motivated hate crimes are directed at Jews, who quantity barely 2 % of the inhabitants. On college campuses, Jewish college students have been harassed, humiliated, and assaulted. And in response, too many college leaders have simpered and mumbled, or taken refuge in denouncing the anti-Semitism of a century passed by relatively than settle for accountability for assaults that have been carried out on their watch as we speak.
These occasions have typically occurred beneath the excusing banner of anti-Zionism. In some instances, the masks slips, and the deeper hatred exhibits itself. However even those that sincerely insist that they’re merely “anti-Zionist” should notice that the Zionist mission was the creation of a Jewish state. To be anti-Zionist is presumably to consider that the mission needs to be undone. In that case, it is best to understand how such a dissolution would occur and what it could entail. Have a look at the movies and photos from the pogrom of October 7, and notice that the epithet that was shouted exultantly by the murderers was not “Israeli,” however “Jew.” And that is additionally why as we speak, American Jews know concern.
Worse than the truth that my synagogue has to have an armed police officer on guard throughout providers, worse even than the hate spewed on the extremes of proper and left—together with by swaggering billionaires and distinguished politicians—is the silence from these of whom many Jews anticipated higher. It’s the silence of feminists in regards to the rape of ladies; it’s the silence of civil-rights activists in regards to the homicide of infants; it’s the silence of human-rights advocates about torture and burning individuals alive.
And so, that hope—not a promise, to make sure—provided by George Washington appears removed from actuality. That’s what we must work via this Thanksgiving.
The way in which to take action begins with the phrases of a recent of Seixas and Washington, from a world away. Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav was a Hasidic grasp, a mystic, a troubled and tormented soul, who died of tuberculosis whereas but a younger man in Uman, Ukraine, the place tens of 1000’s of Hasidic Jews nonetheless make a pilgrimage to his grave yearly. Considered one of his sayings, abbreviated and edited into a preferred spiritual music, is related: “Know that Man has to cross a really, very slim bridge, and that the guideline and the important factor is to not make oneself afraid.”
It’s a delicate level: Concern is pure and can come, however that doesn’t imply we’ve got to yield to it. Jewish historical past and Jewish thriving are about crossing that slim bridge, usually to the amazement of pals in addition to foes. Certainly, usually to our personal astonishment.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow visited Newport in 1852 and brooded in regards to the Jewish cemetery there. He noticed a synagogue that was closed and, admiring although he was of Jewish civilization, noticed in these graves a finality about their which means:
However ah! what as soon as has been shall be no extra!
The groaning earth in travail and in ache
Brings forth its races, however doesn’t restore,
And the useless nations by no means rise once more.
However one such nation did rise once more. It survived much more horrible issues than the poet may ever have imagined. Moses Seixas’s Touro Synagogue—the oldest in the US, predating the American founding by greater than a century—continues to conduct providers to this present day. After we named our youngest daughter there, the sanctuary was full. For the resilience and braveness that historical past and that information offers on this Thanksgiving, we needs to be, and we will probably be, deeply grateful.
