Archive for April, 2007
In a previous issue of the Bulletin (Summer, 2004), I wrote of George Washington’s famous letter of 1790 “To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island” which has become the classical expression of religious liberty in America. In this issue, I would like to again explore this principle of religious freedom and diversity in the shaping of America’s great experiment.
The horrible events of 9/11 and subsequent murderous activities of radical Islamists should remind us on a daily basis that religious liberity, toleration and diversity are precious gifts. Blessings not to be considered as our right, but to be appreciated and celebrated together and worthy of guarding and defending as our collective duty.
In August, 2004, a conference was held in Newport, Rhode Island celebrating 350 years of Jewish American history. The date of the meeting was chosen deliberately to coincide with Washington’s August 17, 1790 letter of welcome to Judah. Every August the members of Touro Synagogue read Washington’s letter aloud. The complete content of Washington’s message appeared in the Summer, 2004 bulletin.
At the conference, five other colonial Jewish congregations were also honored. The Fundamental Constitution of Carolina written by John Locke in 1669 was the first constitution in history to grant religious freedom to Jews. It was Charles Pinckney of Charleston, as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, who successfully proposed a ban on religious tests for public office in the United States Constitution.
Actually, the synagogues of Charleston, Philadelphia, New York, and Richmond received their own letter from George Washington later in 1790, in which Washington said, “The liberality of sentiment towards each other which marks every political and religious denomination of men in this country stands unparalleled in the history of nations.”
Between 1790 and 1820 Charleston actually had the largest Jewish population of any city in America, surpassing New York and Philadelphia. The first Catholic Church in South Carolina, St. Mary’s, was built in 1800 on Hasell Street across the street from Beth Elohim, the first synagogue in South Carolina, and founded in 1749.
For Jewish Americans 2004 was a special year. The Jewish community celebrated 350 years of Jewish life in the United States. In 1654, after a perilous journey, 23 Jews from Recife, Brazil, landed in New Amsterdam. They were only “23 souls, big and small,” exhausted after surviving storms and pirates on the high seas. These five words in an early Dutch document describe America’s first Jews, who had fled persecution in Brazil (the Newport congregation of 15 Spanish Portuguese Jewish families arrived in the spring of 1658). Buccaneers in the Caribbean captured them before a French ship rescued them and brought them to what is now New York.
Peter Stuyvesant, the governor-general of the then-Dutch Colony of New Netherlands tried to get the Jews to leave, believing they would not assimilate, would not support themselves financially, and would not adequately participate in the Dutch colony’s lifestyle. Fortunately, The Dutch West India Company in Amsterdam disagreed and ordered Stuyvesant to permit the Jews to remain. The rest, as they say, is history.
Observances continued throughout 2004 in Jewish communities across the United States celebrating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the refugees.
The Library of Congress hosted an exhibit on Jewish life called “From Haven to Home.” The National Foundation for Jewish Culture also recognized the enormous contribution of Jewish talent to about 100 movies, from the Marx Brothers’ “Duck Soup” to Steven Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List.”
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel prize-winning Holocaust scholar and survivor remarked that Jews came to America, “chased by persecution, fanaticism, intolerance, and meanness. But they managed to transform memories of suffering into an American vision of moral harmony among cultures, religions and society.”
Celebrating religious freedom and diversity is important. Our nation has a long and distinguished history of and contributions to religious freedom, something I’m afraid many of us took for granted until 9/11. All citizens share a responsibilty in preserving this uniquely American harmony among cultures and religions.
Ralph Buntyn