Throughout the Revolution, Jews rallied to support the cause of American Independence. They committed their lives, their honor, and far too frequently their fortunes to the new nation, and they did so with little hope of enjoying the benefit that “all men are created equal.” This talk highlights some of those contributions.
From the comfortable hindsight of the twenty-first century, it is easy to see the vision of “all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…” that our country’s founders espoused in the Declaration of Independence as inevitable. That is far from the reality in the 1770’s. Women, African Americans, and above all those who do not embrace Protestant Christianity were systematically excluded from this promise. To the founders, “freedom of religion” was meant only for Protestant Christians. Jews, Muslims, and Roman Catholics only gained these freedoms after the United States Constitution was ratified and then only after significant sacrifice and argument. The American dream wasn’t the same for everyone and yet Jews, Muslims, and other minorities not only took an active role in winning independence, in establishing our system of laws and governance, and ensuring that our nation thrived—they did so in numbers far greater than their small percentages of the population would expect.
In places like Philadelphia, New York City, Providence, Savanah, and Charleston, Jews rallied to support the cause of American Independence. They committed their resources, their honor, and their lives to the new nation, and they did so with little hope of enjoying the benefits that others in society expected. Men like Mordecai Sheftall and David Franks served the Continental Army with distinction. The first American casualty in the siege of Savanah was a Jew (Francis Salvador). Jews supplied the army, interdicted British shipping at sea, and provided the funds needed to keep the army in the field. They served at all levels and in all capacities both as members of the military (some 500 Jews served out of a total American Jewish population of only 5,000), as civilian advisors and financiers, as publicists, as privateers, as ambassadors, as spies, and as physicians. When the Continental Army was on the verge of collapse at McConkey’s Ferry, a Polish Jew told General Washington the story of the Maccabean rebellion, which Washington repeated to his soldiers as they rallied to cross the Delaware on Christmas Day. The war might have been won without Jews, but no one can deny that they played their part in ensuring it was won.
After the war, the Jews of Newport argued to George Washington (not yet President) in favor of removing Christian oaths of office and opening roles in government to all Americans. Jews helped establish the Mint and the First Bank of the United States. Jews put down the Whiskey Rebels in Pennsylvania and secured trade alliances around the world. They lobbied for the ratification of the United States Constitution and then for the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses in the First Amendment. Jews saw the founding of the new nation as tikkun olam ('repairing the world') and used their influence to ensure that that phrase in the Constitution’s Preamble, “We the People, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice and ensure domestic tranquility…” became more than flowery speech, but rather a mission for the nascent republic.
This talk focuses on highlighting some of these contributions.