{"id":448786,"date":"2026-05-19T03:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/448786\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T03:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T03:49:09","slug":"rabbi-meir-soloveichik-condemns-antisemitism-at-washington-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/448786\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Meir Soloveichik condemns antisemitism at Washington rally"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Orthodox rabbi speaking at a mass prayer rally on the National Mall on Sunday condemned antisemitism as \u201cutterly un-American,\u201d drawing applause as the only non-Christian speaker at the event.<\/p>\n

Rabbi Meir Soloveichik leads Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City and is a senior fellow at the Tikvah Fund, the conservative Jewish think tank. He also sits on the Religious Liberty Commission that US President Donald Trump<\/a> convened last year.<\/p>\n

Soloveichik links \u2018God Bless America\u2019 to Jewish history<\/p>\n

Speaking to the crowd gathered for a rally on the National Mall called \u201cRededicate 250,\u201d which aims to place faith at the center of celebrations marking the United States\u2019 250th anniversary,<\/a> Soloveichik described the Jewish history behind one of America\u2019s most iconic songs.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod Bless America\u201d was written by Irving Berlin, who as a child witnessed his home village in Russia burned in a pogrom and later sought to thank the country that gave him refuge, Soloveichik said.<\/p>\n

He noted that decades after writing the lyrics, Berlin revived the song as Nazi Germany<\/a> expanded its ambitions in Europe in the late 1930s, premiering it on the radio the day after the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938.<\/p>\n

\"AA view of a US flag and an Israeli flag held up by people during a demonstration to show support for U.S. President Joe Biden, for not inviting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House, in front of the US Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel, March 30, 2023. (credit: REUTERS\/Ronen Zvulun)<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the very moment when darkness deepened abroad, America raised its voice, united in the song that Irving Berlin wrote,\u201d Soloveichik said.<\/p>\n

A few moments later, he added: \u201cThe prayer that is \u2018God Bless America\u2019 was carried by American soldiers who defeated evil, liberating Europe and the world. And it is a reminder, as hatred of Jews makes itself manifest again, that antisemitism is utterly un-American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Event draws mixed reactions from Jewish groups<\/p>\n

The rally, along with Trump\u2019s call for Jews to observe \u201cShabbat 250\u201d the day before, drew mixed reactions from American Jews.<\/p>\n

Some, particularly in the Orthodox Jewish world,<\/a> welcomed efforts to promote Shabbat observance and public expressions of faith. Others argued that the events represented an inappropriate merging of religion and state, while also appropriating Jewish traditions in service of Christian nationalism.<\/p>\n

Soloveichik did not directly address the controversy during his four-minute speech. However, he argued that the enduring popularity of \u201cGod Bless America\u201d reflected a deeper element of American identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe power and popularity of \u2018God Bless America\u2019 reveals to us,\u201d he said, \u201cthat America\u2019s passion for prayer and its love of liberty are always intertwined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Irving Berlin\u2019s legacy extended beyond patriotic songs<\/p>\n

In addition to \u201cGod Bless America,\u201d Irving Berlin also wrote \u201cWhite Christmas,\u201d one of the most enduring Christmas songs in American culture.<\/p>\n

Less widely known was an anti-lynching anthem Berlin wrote around the same period that \u201cGod Bless America\u201d became nationally popular.<\/p>\n

Berlin also dedicated songs to Ellin Mackay, the Catholic socialite he married in 1926 in an interfaith union that sparked national attention and tensions within their families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Orthodox rabbi speaking at a mass prayer rally on the National Mall on Sunday condemned antisemitism as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[62400,111,54,42,43,40,38,41,39,730],"class_list":["post-448786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-american-jews","tag-antisemitism","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}