This July 4, American Jews will find themselves navigating the 250th year of the nation\u2019s independence through a highly politicized cultural and religious landscape.<\/p>\n
The big birthday is breathing new life into old debates over religious freedom, such as the one that took place around President Donald Trump\u2019s recent national prayer rally and proclamation of \u201cShabbat 250,\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n There\u2019s definitely a good mood deficit all around: 77% of Americans say the founders would be \u201cdisappointed\u201d<\/a> in the state of the union, crossing party lines.<\/p>\n Still, Jewish organizations across the country are marking the semiquincentennial and long history of Jewish contributions to American democracy with a variety of events, including cultural programming and civic education rooted in Jewish texts.<\/p>\n The Jewish Museum\u00a0<\/p>\n Oct. 24, 2025 \u2013 Aug. 9, 2026<\/p>\n Currently on view at New York City\u2019s recently renovated<\/a> Jewish Museum is the \u201cCirca 1776\u201d exhibit<\/a>, which explores themes of Jewish colonial and postcolonial life in America. This exhibit includes portraits, artifacts, and documents together with the \u201cIdentity, Culture, and Community\u201d exhibit currently on view. Included in the latter exhibit are letters from 1790 between the new American President George Washington and Moses Seixas<\/a>, the president of what is now the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island \u2014 the oldest synagogue in the United States.<\/p>\n Seixas congratulated Washington on his new presidency, and expressed hope and optimism at the prospect of religious freedom in their new country.<\/p>\n \u201cMay the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants \u2014,\u201d Washington wrote in response, adding a quotation from scripture, \u201cwhile everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n The exchange has become the ur text of American Jewish belonging<\/a>, surfacing in virtually every instance Jewish Americans have faced challenges about their place in the national fabric.<\/p>\n On June 29, the museum will hold a ticketed lecture<\/a> exploring the lives of Jews in Colonial America, co-hosted with the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Congregation Shearith Israel.<\/p>\n Entry to the museum is free on Saturdays.<\/p>\n Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History<\/p>\n April 23, 2026 \u2013 April 2027<\/p>\n Philadelphia\u2019s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, a Smithsonian affiliate currently under consideration to become a full member of the Smithsonian Institution<\/a>, has a slate of exhibits focused on Jewish involvement during the American Revolutionary period.<\/p>\n Aside from the core exhibition, which spans 1654 to 1945 and focuses on themes of freedom and religion, there is also the \u201cOnly in America\u201d Gallery \u2014 a hall of fame of American Jews such as singer-songwriter Irving Berlin, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, actor and singer Barbra Streisand, and Henrietta Szold, the founder of the Zionist Hadassah movement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe First Salute\u201d exhibit explores a little-known story<\/a> of a group of Sephardic merchants on the Caribbean island of Sint Eustatius, who helped supply the Continental Army with weapons. On November 16, 1776, an American ship entering the harbor and flying a precursor to the American flag was thought to be the first American cannon salute to be recognized by a foreign nation. The ship sent out a 13-gun salute, and was returned with one by the Dutch governor. \u201cThe First Salute\u201d will be on view until April 2027.<\/p>\n The core exhibition is viewable online<\/a>, as is the \u201cOnly in America\u201d Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Repair the World<\/p>\n June 10, 2026 \u2013 July 10, 2026<\/p>\n The Jewish service movement that connects young adults to community service events around the United States has launched Serve 250, a themed campaign offering service and learning opportunities throughout the month. Repair the World is also partnering with A More Perfect Union to provide democracy and civic engagement resources.<\/p>\n Volunteers with Repair the World will<\/a> march at the Detroit and New York City Pride parades, pack vegetarian lunches in Chicago, visit families of veterans in Los Angeles, and host an online discussion about the value of service.<\/p>\n The Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society<\/p>\n July 21, 2026 \u2013 December 31, 2026<\/p>\n A new exhibit at New York City\u2019s Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society<\/a> will explore the history of Jewish political life in the United States, and how the Jewish community has engaged with civic and political issues like citizenship, immigration, labor rights, voting access, civil rights, and religious freedom.<\/p>\n Through seven thematic sections, \u201cAll We Have Standing Between Us\u201d will feature letters and artifacts from former presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Richard Nixon, and Barack Obama, as well as First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt; Picasso drawings of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the Jewish couple convicted of spying for the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War; and texts and digital media highlighting the work of Sephardic poet Emma Lazarus, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr., and feminist writer Betty Friedan.<\/p>\n The exhibit will be accompanied by an eight-episode podcast launching July 1.<\/p>\n Congregation Mikveh Israel<\/p>\n July 26, 2026<\/p>\n Philadelphia\u2019s oldest synagogue is hosting a celebration for America\u2019s 250th Independence Day<\/a> from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. with vendors, food, art, and music. This event is all-ages friendly.<\/p>\n Congregation Mikveh Israel is the oldest continuous synagogue in the United States founded in 1740 by Spanish and Portuguese immigrants. It was once led by Gershom Mendes Seixas, the first American-born Jewish religious leader in America and a founder of what later became Columbia University in New York and the cantor at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York. (The Seixas family was also involved in a number of other important Jewish and secular establishments, including the founding of the New York Stock Exchange, the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, and Touro Synagogue in Rhode Island.)<\/p>\n The synagogue is also hosting a July 4 Independence Day weekend Shabbat service, with Friday night and Saturday morning services. A \u201cFaith and Freedom\u201d exhibit<\/a> detailing the Jewish contributions to the American Revolution and onward is currently on display at the synagogue.<\/p>\n Year-round events<\/p>\n Shalom Hartman Institute<\/p>\n The Hartman Beit Midrash for America at 250<\/a> has created a digital library of Jewish texts and ideas, and developed a series of public programs, essays, in-person events, holiday guides, podcast episodes. There will be a special America 250 edition of Hartman\u2019s journal \u201cSources: A Journal of Jewish Ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n In partnership with the civic education nonprofit A More Perfect Union, Hartman has also established a cohort \u2014 the American Jewish Civics Seminar (AJCS) \u2014 based on Jewish teachings to provide a framework for understanding civic and democratic issues.<\/p>\n Included as part of this project is a resource library<\/a> with essays about how American Jewish institutions are engaging with civic learning, like the four-week voter student learning series and voter engagement project MitzVote at Hillel International.<\/p>\n Pardes Institute<\/p>\n Though not based in the United States, the Jerusalem-based yeshiva Pardes Institute has joined with the interfaith project Faith250 to create the Talmud of America<\/a>, a collection of commentaries<\/a> inspired by the Declaration of Independence and Jewish texts. This essay collection comes with source sheets and is available to download for free, either in bulk for large community settings like summer camps or synagogues, or individual copies for solo study.<\/p>\n Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center<\/p>\n