One day in January 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia, a little boy named David stood in line with his father to visit the Freedom Train, filled with original American documents such as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Gettysburg Address.<\/p>\n
As we wandered through the train, we looked at these seminal papers. Several times, my father pointed out the signatures of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and, of course, George Washington.<\/p>\n
Now, after having seen more noted American historical signatures on various documents, my great American Jewish moment occurred. Frequently, I ask myself, \u201cCould I actually have seen that most famous George Washington letter to the \u2018Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island,\u2019 written after he visited the synagogue in 1790?\u201d<\/p>\n
However, why not? My father, Louis, read to me from the letter: \u201cMay the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
That letter has come to mean so much to me that I purchased two facsimiles and have read the letter many times.<\/p>\n
A 1784 painting by Charles Willson Peale titled \u2018George Washington at the Battle of Princeton.\u2019 (credit: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS)<\/p>\n
As Presidents\u2019 Day approaches (February 16), I would like to review its meaning.<\/p>\n
Noted American Jewish historian Prof. Jonathan Sarna offers a very important interpretation of the meaning of this letter.<\/p>\n
Rights for religious liberty<\/p>\n
\u201cA short exchange between President George Washington<\/a> and the Jewish community of Newport articulated a theory of religious liberty grounded in inherent natural rights rather than toleration \u2013 even before the First Amendment was added to the American Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarna, who has been a historical activist throughout his life, wanted to see the actual letter in 2011. It had disappeared.<\/p>\n In order to make the letter visible and also protected, a journalist of The Forward began to write about the lost letter. After a search which he initiated, since the name of the owner was known, the letter was found in a basement \u2013 unprotected.<\/p>\n Actually seeing the original of the letter has motivated me to study the analysis by Sarna and other scholars. When Sarna was in Jerusalem and spoke about the meaning of the letter, I was present.<\/p>\n I quote from Sarna\u2019s words again. \u201cThe letter reframes American religious freedom as a lived constitutional principle forged through minority claims, not merely legal text.\u201d<\/p>\n Now Sarna emphasizes a key point: \u201cDiscussions of America\u2019s religious origins are often framed almost exclusively through Christianity, yet this letter suggests that even the nation\u2019s most important founder rejected such a narrow understanding.<\/p>\n \u201cOver time, the letter took on sacred proportions not only for Jews but for anyone who cared about religious liberty. In today\u2019s climate, where debates about religion and America are increasingly shaped by Christian<\/a> nationalism, the letter stands as a foundational proof text for pluralism.\u201d<\/p>\n My personal experience with pluralism was most fascinating. During the last major American celebration, the Bicentennial in 1976, I was a rabbi in Wilmington, Delaware, before making aliyah the following year. I received information encouraging ministers, priests, and rabbis to plan \u201cAmerican celebratory events\u201d to be funded by the Bicentennial Commission of the US. I applied, the synagogue received a grant, and the cantor and I wrote a \u201cPageant of Freedom\u201d in song with an original text. Five hundred people \u2013 Jews and Christians \u2013 attended the event.<\/p>\n Let me introduce Irvin Ungar, the collector of the art of Arthur Szyk. Szyk had disappeared from the scene except for his famous Haggadah. Ungar discovered Szyk art treasures. A major article on Szyk appeared in The New York Times in December 2025.<\/p>\n Szyk moved to the US from England at the beginning of World War II. His art depicting the story of the US had a defining figure, George Washington.<\/p>\n In his award-winning book on Szyk, Arthur Szyk: Soldier in Art<\/a>, Ungar demonstrates the particular interest of the artist in the freedom he understood was to be found in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cEarly on, he was drawn to George Washington and the concept of democracy. And he was mindful of the unique freedoms of American Jews precisely because the United States protects religious liberty and \u2013 for the most part \u2013 embraces the diversity that inspired its motto \u2018E pluribus unum,\u2019 [meaning] \u2018Out of many, one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n In 1930, Szyk drew his first picture of George Washington, on a horse, leading the American colonist fighters. \u201cThis painting and 37 others in this series of Washington and the American Revolution,\u201d Ungar notes in his book, \u201cwere completed by Szyk in time for the 200th anniversary of Washington\u2019s birth in 1932.\u201d Bought by the president of Poland, they were presented to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a gift.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen FDR delivered his famous \u2018Four Freedoms\u2019 speech to Congress in January 1941, the walls of the White House displayed the entire Szyk series.\u201d<\/p>\n For another American historical moment, Ungar describes the drawing, by Szyk, of the Declaration of Independence in this fashion. \u201cAll the symbols of the American Revolution are present, most prominently George Washington with hand raised as if in benediction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe text, beautified with color and pattern,\u201d Ungar writes, \u201chighlights the most important words: \u2018We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n Ungar points to the meaning of the 1790 letter. \u201cTwenty-four years after these words were written, Washington<\/a> made it clear in his letter to the Jews of Newport that those inalienable rights, or \u2018inherent natural rights\u2019 as he termed them, included religious liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof. Melvin I. Urofsky wrote the book A Genesis of Religious Freedom: The Story of the Jews of Newport, RI, and Touro Synagogue. He added in the book title \u201cincluding Washington\u2019s letter of 1790.\u201d<\/p>\n As it happens in his book, facing the picture of noted benefactor Judah Touro, he writes: \u201cAlthough this letter carries with it a unique and cherished significance, in many ways it is a treasure for the entire nation. America, as [Alexis] de Tocqueville famously wrote, had been \u2018born free,\u2019 unfettered by the religious and social bigotries of medieval Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n