The Story of the Jews Who Fought in the Revolution

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And this next story combines both. Here to tell the story about Jews in America around the time of the revolution is Adam Jortner. He's a professor of history and religion at Auburn University. His book, A Promised Land, Jewish Patriots, The American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom. Professor Jortner, what brought you to study this idea of Jews in the revolution? I'm a real history buff. I had no idea, no clue that Jews had been a part of the fighting of the war effort. Yeah, it sounds fake.

It sounds like a comedy routine. I'll tell you about Jews in the revolution. That's the shocking thing to me. And the more I read about it, the more there was to find about it. Talk about how you came to write about this subject. I wrote a book about Mormons. I've written a book about Native American prophets. And my wife was pregnant with my second kid. I was very nervous. I was like, well, I need a small project. I'll work on Jews and the revolution because that won't take very long.

My second son is now 10 years old. So it did take a while. But what I found out was not only are there Jews in the United States during the revolution, they're really passionate patriots for the most part. A lot of Jews rush to sign up and a lot of them end up, because of the way the revolutionary war works out, a lot of them end up in the same city. They're all in Philadelphia and they form this synagogue. They reform the local synagogue, Mikvah Israel, in Philadelphia in the 1780s, which makes them one of the very first kind of national religious groups. So not only are Jews part of the American religious history, they're there from the very beginning of the republic.

And that really made me stop and say, I need to know about these guys. I need to really think about religion and the revolution just to get the basic question of, well, what were people doing? What did they believe?

What kind of beliefs are bouncing around there in Bunker Hill and Valley Forge and all these places? You said they came to Philadelphia. Where did the Jews come from? And when were the first Jews here in America? When did the Jews arrive and why did they arrive? Did they arrive for the same reason the Puritans arrived?

They all end up in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War because most of the cities they're living in, Savannah, Charleston, New York, by 1780, those have all been taken over by the British. So Philadelphia is sort of the last city standing that still has a functioning synagogue. If you want to be patriotic and you're a Jew, if you can get to Philadelphia, you've got to get there. And this is something, in terms of studying Jews, Judaism requires, there's stuff you need for Judaism. You need to have a Torah.

You need to have a minion. And these things are things that a Methodist or an Episcopalian doesn't necessarily need. So a lot of Jews end up in Philadelphia. But Jews have been in the Americas ever since Europeans got here. There were Jews coming over when Spain invaded with the Aztecs. Of course, Judaism is banned in Spain, so a number of Jews are hiding out in New Mexico in the 1500s.

This is a very old tradition in North America. Jews end up in the British colonies, places like New York and Georgia, mostly as a result of accidents. Some of those Jews were living in Brazil when it was under Dutch control and the Dutch offered some kind of religious freedom.

Then Portugal takes over, so a bunch of Brazilian Jews end up heading to New York City. And there are other cases where various Jews from Britain or Jews who have been hiding in Spain end up in British North America. They know British North America is a better place for religious freedom than Spain under the Spanish Monarchy, but it's still not a place where religious freedom is full and celebrated. There are still state churches in the British colonies. If you're Jewish, you're not a subject, you're a resident, and the rules are different for residents. I think most of the Jews end up, there aren't a ton of them, there may be something like one tenth of one percent of the population, a tiny, tiny number, but they have built several synagogues by the time the Revolutionary War is underway, and people who are visitors to the colonies are sort of shocked that there's no political equality, but they're shocked that there are Jews in the taverns along with everybody else. They're surprised that in the day-to-day life, they don't see the kinds of distinctions between Christians and Jews that you might find in, say, Central Europe or Poland. There isn't that kind of distinction that's made.

And it's not just the Jews who are sort of residents but not citizens. You write a bit about the Catholics and the Baptists. Talk about that as well, because it's a sort of an alliance that'll form as the revolution occurs, where a war ultimately brings a lot of these folks together, seeking a common ideal, which would be religious freedom, but that wasn't also why they fought either.

So talk about both of those things. The thing that I think I found out writing this book is that religious freedom was not a given in 1776. It wasn't that the British colonies were this place where everybody had religious freedom, and then the revolution just kind of codifies it. Religious freedom is something you have to work for.

It's something you have to build. And you're listening to Professor Adam Jortner, and he's a professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and his book, A Promised Land, is a must-read. I urge you to go to Amazon or the Usual Suspects, pick up the book, and you'll learn a lot about the founding of this nation and the role Jews played in it. And my goodness, we're learning something already.

The fact that there were Jews in America at the time, the Jews were involved in this patriotic struggle, and that so many Jews ended up in the city of Philadelphia, because it was the one place where, as the war was beginning to commence, they felt free and they felt secure to represent and fight on behalf of and for their country, and more importantly, for religious freedom. When we come back, we're going to learn more about the state of religious freedom in the United States, and so much more, when we continue with our American stories. This is Lee Habib, host of Our American Stories, the show where America is the star in the American people, and we do it all from the heart of the South, Oxford, Mississippi. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our shows will always be free to listen to, but they're not free to make. If you love what you hear, consider making a tax-deductible donation to Our American Stories. Go to OurAmericanStories.com.

Give a little, give a lot. That's OurAmericanStories.com. Black Friday is coming, and for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year, too. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So, if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year, or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian. At the push of a button, make bar-quality cosmopolitans, martinis, Manhattans, and more, all in just 30 seconds, all for $100 off.

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That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N dot com slash cocktail. Sex, politics, IVF, mental illness. I bet you have rarely, if ever, heard these topics discussed in church. And I bet you've got questions about them that you'd love to ask a pastor. Well, there's a podcast that tackles these taboo topics. I'm Pastor Mike Novotny with Time of Grace Ministry and in my new podcast, Taboo Questions with Pastor Mike Novotny, I answer questions from people just like you as I open up the Bible to give answers that point people back to the truth and especially to our Savior, Jesus.

To listen, just search Taboo Questions with Pastor Mike. 100 color changing bulbs and multiple lighting functions. Or maybe the flocked starry light Frasier fur is more your style with over 1900 prelit memory wire branches that hold their shape. This tree is ready to shine right out of the box. Whether it's trees, wreaths or twinkling lights, we've got everything you need to make your home holiday ready. So shop now at Home Depot dot com and enjoy free delivery on most holiday decor subject to availability.

Home Depot dot com slash delivery for details. Welcome to the world of Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, the perfect gift for the music lover in your life. They're designed to give you complete openness to your surroundings while providing rich private sound. Want to hear what that sounds like? Picture this a walk on a sunny winter day. You can hear the satisfying crunch of snow beneath your feet and your favorite holiday song playing.

That's the magic we're talking about. Hear life and music at the same time. Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

Own the gift game and check out Bose dot com slash iHeart to shop now. Just a few years ago, only three percent of domestic violence shelters accepted pets, meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind. One in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime, and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them. Purina believes in the healing power of pets, particularly for survivors of abuse. They believe pets and people are better together, which is one of the many reasons they started the Purple Leash Project. Through the Purple Leash Project, Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face, the lack of pet friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet friendly shelters across the country from three percent to nearly 20 percent through the Purple Leash Project. With more pet friendly domestic violence shelters, survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.

Visit Purina dot com slash purple to get involved. And we continue with our American stories and with the story of the Jews around the American Revolution and how Jews played a part in our nation's founding and the Jews had been here, well, for a very long time before. Picking up where we last left off is Adam Jortner. He's a professor of history and religion at Auburn University. So what you have in the British colonies, and of course, these are not these are not equal places. We know slavery is legal in every British colony, even Massachusetts has enslaved people.

And it's not a world where it's assumed that each human being has natural rights. And therefore, it's not a big problem to say, well, there's going to be a state church. The church sort of varies place to place. Congregationalist Puritan in Connecticut, and it's Episcopalian in Virginia and so on.

But these are all connected to the Empire. All these state churches go back to the center of power in London. And when the church is supported by a state, then the church will back up what the state wants.

Other smarter people than me have pointed this out. When do we get real abolitionist churches in the United States? It's after the state churches have gone away. So the state churches want stability.

They want peace and they want the social order. That's how it works. So if you are not a member of the state church, depending on the colony, you just don't have the same religious rights. This is the case with Jews, with Catholics, Baptists. That's a bit of a surprise for many of my students down here in Alabama. But Baptists in Virginia are technically not allowed to preach without permission from the Episcopalian, the Anglican state church.

Now, my students always want to know, what does that mean? Does that mean they go around hunting up the Baptists? Well, no. The way it works is like this. If you're a Baptist preacher or you attend Baptist services, you've got to pay taxes. And you pay a tax to support the state church. And then, unless you want your preacher to go hungry, if you want a meeting house to meet in, you've got to also pay for your own church.

So you're paying for two churches, only one of which you use. Second thing is, if you're a Baptist preacher, you've got to be licensed and known by the state. And of course, the state can come in anytime it wants and say, this is not official church, state church business.

And of course, when would the officials do this? They'd do it if any Baptists become troublesome. Particularly if a Baptist starts preaching against enslavement, or if a Baptist starts preaching about freedom of conscience, that is the right to choose your own pastor. Then the next Sunday, you can be sure the sheriff might show up and say, oh, this is not a legal meeting.

Or someone might, as sometimes happens, throw a beehive into your services and then nobody investigates it. Or your preacher might get arrested. This happens a couple of times when the preachers are arrested. So Baptists don't have that kind of, when we talk about them not having full freedom, we really do mean they're not rounded up, but they're not allowed to worship.

And for the powers to be, that's okay, because they're not worshiping the right way. Same thing happens with Jews in Rhode Island. There's a Jewish community in the town of Newport, Rhode Island. And again, they are allowed to be there, their residence, but there's a couple of times when the governor comes in and tries to seize all Jewish property based on the idea that, well, this is a Christian kingdom. That means Jews don't have property rights.

And they work it out, but that had to be pretty scary. And when one Jew in Rhode Island, by the name of Aaron Lopez, he's trying to become a subject, he wants to become an Englishman in the colonies, Rhode Island won't let him. So it's the same situation, and this is true Catholics in Maryland. Catholics could practice, but not outside. You had to be in a private house if you wanted to worship and you were Catholic.

You dared to be Catholic in Maryland. This is the situation at the beginning of the Revolution, and here is something I sort of realized, which is, what do the revolutionaries do before they write the Declaration of Independence, before they write the Constitution, even before they fire a shot? What they are saying 1774, 1775 is, the British government is no longer valid here.

They have violated our rights and we break from them. And once the patriots say that, then all of those rules about which church you go to don't apply to the patriots. Again, we can argue about this, what are the legal details, but the reality is, if you were Jewish and you wanted to be a patriot and sign up, you can. And Mordecai Sheftall in Georgia becomes leader of kind of the de facto government of Savannah, even though he's Jewish, because it's not under British control anymore. The same thing happens with a guy named Charles Carroll in Maryland, who becomes the signer of the Declaration of Independence. He couldn't hold office in Maryland because he's Catholic, but the patriots don't have those rules.

Come one, come all. And this is sort of how the patriots, they have a lot of support from these minority religious groups and support from all kinds of different people, but this is sort of how these minority groups who had been legally banned from full participation in the patriot movement, they're in. How did the revolution change Judaism? Well, first of all, it gave Jews freedom to form their own synagogues. In most European colonial places and in Europe itself, there's one synagogue per town.

But that's not going to fly with the First Amendment, because you have freedom of religion. And what you get is actually multiplying synagogues, so that really for the first time in the history of European Jewry and American Jewry, you have more than one synagogue to choose from, which is not always great because there aren't that many Jews in a lot of these towns, but it's a real expression of freedom, which is to say, we're going to choose to worship this way and be Jews, and y'all can choose to worship a different way and be Jews, and the state and the rabbis cannot come in and stop them. So it leads to a proliferation of voices about Judaism. The other thing that is very interesting is that it leads to the first Jewish critiques of Christianity in hundreds and hundreds of years, because freedom of the press meant that Jews could finally write about that. And of course there are Christian groups who say, this is great, this religious freedom allows us to preach to Jews, because in Europe it's hard to preach the gospel to Jews because they don't have full rights. They're being oppressed, they won't be able to hear the real message of Jesus Christ. But here in the United States there are several organizations founded specifically to preach to Jews.

Okay, we've gotten rid of the union of church and state, so this is a great time to preach. And they start publishing books and Jews kind of respond, and most of the stuff is actually very polite and very tepid, but it does sort of lay out the foundations of a new set of arguments between Jews and Christians based on theological issues. And there are some real whoppers in there where Jewish leaders say, well, we believe in the promises of the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, and they bring up things that they don't agree with in the New Testament. And they're able to openly talk about when we find Christian missionaries in the doorways of our synagogues, this is really annoying.

This doesn't encourage us to convert. It is a way for Jews and Christians to speak to each other on what are very touchy issues, but they're able to speak openly. They're able to sort of speak as equals. And there's even times when Jews and Christians will debate each other in public and then nothing happens to either of them, which, again, is just a huge step forward. It leads to a real flowering of Jews thinking about, okay, now that we have religious choice, why Judaism? What is it that makes our faith distinctive? So it leads to a lot of self-analysis of Jews, and that, in turn, is part of what makes new synagogues. And, of course, all this debate within and among Jews and Christians. Well, this battle of ideas was not only good for the churches and the synagogues, it was good for America.

And when we come back, more from Adam Jortner on the story of the Jews in America during the revolution here on Our American Stories. And for the adults in your life who love the coolest toys, well, there's something for them this year, too. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So, if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year, or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian. At the push of a button, make bar-quality cosmopolitans, martinis, manhattans, and more. All in just 30 seconds. All for $100 off.

Amazing toys aren't just for kids. Get $100 off a cocktail maker when you spend $400 through Cyber Monday. Visit bartesian.com slash cocktail.

That's b-a-r-t-e-s-i-a-n dot com slash cocktail. Hi, I'm Mike Novotny. I answer questions from people just like you on essential topics that are not often discussed in church.

Just search tablet questions with Pastor Mike. and multiple lighting functions. Or maybe the flocked starry light Frasier fur is more your style. With over 1,900 pre-lit memory wire branches that hold their shape, this tree's ready to shine right out of the box. Whether it's trees, wreaths, or twinkling lights, we've got everything you need to make your home holiday ready. So shop now at homedepot.com and enjoy free delivery on most holiday decor.

Subject to availability, see homedepot.com slash delivery for details. Welcome to the world of Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, the perfect gift for the music lover in your life. They're designed to give you complete openness to your surroundings while providing rich, private sound. Want to hear what that sounds like? Picture this, a walk on a sunny winter day. You can hear the satisfying crunch of snow beneath your feet and your favorite holiday song playing.

That's the magic we're talking about. Hear life and music at the same time. Bose Ultra Open Earbuds.

Own the gift game and check out bose.com slash iHeart to shop now. Just a few years ago, only 3% of domestic violence shelters accepted pets, meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind. One in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime, and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them. Purina believes in the healing power of pets, particularly for survivors of abuse. They believe pets and people are better together, which is one of the many reasons they started the Purple Leash Project. Through the Purple Leash Project, Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face. The lack of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet-friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the Purple Leash Project. With more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters, survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.

Visit purina.com slash purple to get involved. And we continue with our American stories and with the story of the Jews around the American Revolution. Picking up where we last left off is Adam Jortner and he teaches history and religion at Auburn University. And his book, A Promised Land, is a must read.

I urge you to go to Amazon or the usual suspects. Pick up the book. You start your book in July of 1776 with a man named Jonas Phillips shipping a copy of a very dangerous document across the Atlantic. Who was he and what was that dangerous document? Jonas Phillips is a Jewish merchant.

He's living in Philadelphia. He's a patriot and he's sending the Declaration of Independence to some friends back in Europe. And he writes the letter in Yiddish. Because again, you're not allowed. It's illegal to ship the Declaration of Independence.

It's an illegal document. So he writes the letter in Yiddish. We have a copy of it, fortunately, that got saved because it got captured by the British. And he says the American army is full of a hundred thousand rookum and rookum is Yiddish for tough guys. And the British found this letter, could not translate the Yiddish and assumed it was written in some kind of code and it got stuck in British archives for 150 years. But I think it's really, I love this story and Phillips goes on to become president of the synagogue in Philadelphia, funds money for naval operations, joins the militia. He's a really serious patriot and he's a guy who speaks both Yiddish and English, a very devoted Jew as well.

And it's 1776 and the Declaration is just hot off the presses. It's an example of how Jews saw this moment of revolution, this moment of becoming a separate nation to cleave to the idea that all people are born naturally free. This is something that resonates in the Jewish mind and it resonates right here in the United States. I think one of the reasons why Jews in the revolution seems so odd is because, of course, the vast majority of American Jews are descended from later generations, who come at the end of the 19th century and who are inspired by, among other reasons, this idea of freedom.

But I also want to point out that it was also inspiring for Jews who were already there and who were able to come to the aid of the cause. And Phillips is deeply involved in the war, he's deeply involved in creating this new American synagogue, and later he's deeply involved writing to Washington and the Constitutional Convention about, hey, let's get full rights for Jews and have no religious restrictions. Let's talk about Jews that were loyal to the crown, too, because, look, Ben Franklin had a war inside his own house. His son was the royal governor of New Jersey and sided with the crown and Ben Franklin did and his son ended up in jail.

A lot of people don't know that and they never were to speak again. Were there Jews that were sympathetic to the crown and was this a minority? Was it evenly split, as many historians believe Americans were?

I think that many historians believe it was sort of a third for the crown, a third with the patriots, and a third hiding under their tables, wondering what would happen. Talk about what you think that mix was within the Jewish community. First of all, everybody remember, if it's before 1950, numbers are squishy. Which I mean to say when we say X amount of Americans believed this, X amount of Americans did that, the numbers are always squishy because there's no polling data.

But here is what the evidence sort of suggests. American Jews serve in the patriot army in the exact proportion to their numbers in the population. Which is to say, again, about one tenth of one percent of Americans are Jewish, about one tenth of one percent of the American army and militias are Jewish. That probably indicates a very high degree of alliance to the patriot cause because no Jew in America would have had a military tradition. Because Jews are either banned in European armies or they're banned from the officer class. In Europe, virtually all the armies fight under a state church, a state church who cannot have a Jew command a Christian. Russia, for example, lets Jews into the army and they're so open they let Jews in at age 12. So everyone who saw a kid in the Russian army knows who they can be anti-Semitic to and of course they can't be officers. So there's no existing tradition of Jewish military service in the United States but you get this very high level of participation. That seems to suggest that there is a strong patriot backing.

Of course, it's not always true. There are guys who live, particularly in New York, who stick around. In fact, the New York synagogue itself splits. The leader of the synagogue, a guy named Gershom Satius, when the British invade, leads people out of New York into Connecticut to establish a kind of synagogue, a Jewish community in exile.

A few people sort of stay back in New York. Actually, there's a Hessian, one of the Germans who comes over with the British. There's a Hessian Jew who ends up leading the synagogue during the Revolutionary War while the British occupy New York for almost the whole war. Interestingly, that guy's name is Abraham Zuntz. When the war is over and the patriot Jews come back, they actually ask Zuntz to stay on as a member of the board and Zuntz is like, Well, I could go back to Europe but I think this is a good thing you guys have going.

I'm paraphrasing. So there are loyalist Jews who do stick around. What I found was interesting is I didn't find as many of them, and of course that might be because loyalists don't as often have their stuff saved. But what I do think is interesting is that, at least in the places where we can trace this, and New York's the best place, the breakdown between loyalists and patriots doesn't seem to correspond to any previous divisions within the synagogue. In other words, it's not like the people who preferred their services in the Sephardic style joined one side, and people who preferred it in the Ashkenazic style joined the other side. Or the families who had fought between them, because of course it's a religious organization, families fight. The breakdown between loyalists and patriots doesn't follow those divides. Which again I think suggests that American Jews are thinking about this not as a way to settle old scores or to further their pre-existing agenda, but to say, Ooh, this is a new interesting problem.

This is an opportunity. How do we really think about the idea that all people are created equal? How do we really feel about the idea that we should be able to choose, have a voice in, creating our own government? So there are Jewish loyalists. I don't think there are as many as Jewish patriots, but again, if you want hard numbers, those do not exist. And you've been listening to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches history and religion at Auburn University. His book, A Promised Land, Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom is available at Amazon or wherever you get your books. And we learn so much here about religious freedom in this country in the revolutionary period.

And it's not as tidy as we'd come to believe from anything we've been taught. I know, at least for me, I learned a lot just listening thus far. And by the way, we hear about not just the Jews' role in the revolution, but particular people too. Jonas Phillips, for one, a serious patriot. And my goodness, we learn he even took a chance shipping a copy of the Declaration of Independence overseas in Yiddish, because the king thought this document was dangerous. And my goodness, the king was right. A document like this was dangerous to kings, monarchs, tyrants everywhere in the world.

When we come back, more of the story of Jews in the revolution here on Our American Stories. Bartesian is the premier craft cocktail maker that automatically makes more than 60 seasonal and classic cocktails, each in under 30 seconds at the push of a button. And right now, Bartesian is having a huge site-wide sale. You can get $100 off any cocktail maker or cocktail maker bundle when you spend $400 or more. So, if the cocktail lover in your life has been good this year, or the right kind of bad, get them Bartesian. At the push of a button, make bar-quality cosmopolitans, martinis, manhattans, and more, all in just 30 seconds, all for $100 off.

Amazing toys aren't just for kids. Get $100 off a cocktail maker when you spend $400 through Cyber Monday. Visit bartesian.com slash cocktail.

That's B-A-R-T-E-S-I-A-N dot com slash cocktail. Sex, politics, IVF, mental illness – I bet you have rarely, if ever, heard these topics discussed in church. And I bet you've got questions about them that you'd love to ask a pastor. Well, there's a podcast that tackles these taboo topics. I'm Pastor Mike Novotny with Time of Grace Ministry and in my new podcast, Taboo Questions with Pastor Mike Novotny, I answer questions from people just like you as I open up the Bible to give answers that point people back to the truth and especially to our Savior, Jesus.

To listen, just search Taboo Questions with Pastor Mike. 1,200 color-changing bulbs and multiple lighting functions. Or maybe the flocked starry light Frasier fur is more your style. With over 1,900 pre-lit memory wire branches that hold their shape, this tree's ready to shine right out of the box. Whether it's trees, wreaths, or twinkling lights, we've got everything you need to make your home holiday ready. So shop now at homedepot.com and enjoy free delivery on most holiday decor.

Subject to availability, see homedepot.com slash delivery for details. Welcome to the world of Bose Ultra Open Earbuds, the perfect gift for the music lover in your life. They're designed to give you complete openness to your surroundings while providing rich, private sound. Want to hear what that sounds like? Picture this, a walk on a sunny winter day. You can hear the satisfying crunch of snow beneath your feet and your favorite holiday song playing. That's the magic we're talking about.

Hear life and music at the same time. Just a few years ago, only 3% of domestic violence shelters accepted pets, meaning many abuse survivors had to choose between staying in a difficult situation for their pet or leaving their pet behind. One in three women and one in four men experienced domestic abuse in their lifetime, and nearly half of survivors delay leaving because they can't bring their pets with them. Purina believes in the healing power of pets, particularly for survivors of abuse. They believe pets and people are better together, which is one of the many reasons they started the Purple Leash Project. Through the Purple Leash Project, Purina is helping break down one of the many barriers abuse survivors face. The lack of pet-friendly domestic violence shelters. Purina has helped increase the amount of pet-friendly shelters across the country from 3% to nearly 20% through the Purple Leash Project. With more pet-friendly domestic violence shelters, survivors and their pets can escape and heal together.

Visit purina.com slash purple to get involved. And we continue with our American stories and with Adam Jortner. He's a professor of history and religion at Auburn University, and we're talking about Jews during the American Revolution, their participation and their fight to secure our liberties. Let's talk about George Washington. He did a major first in world history that isn't spoken of very often. He appointed Jews as military officers.

That never happened in Europe. Talk about how this made Jewish people feel about Washington. Yeah, Washington appoints people to higher offices without regard for their religion. And that in itself is a remarkable achievement. And Washington doesn't write very much about this. It could just be he needed the bodies. But here's the thing.

So does everybody else. His contemporaries, white European soldiers, also need soldiers and good officers, but they allow this discrimination to take place, and Washington does not. That probably secures Washington a real place in the heart of early U.S. Jews to the extent that the Richmond synagogue will eventually write a prayer for George Washington. You know it's for Washington because it's an acrostic in Hebrew. So the letters spell out Washington because there's no W sound in Hebrew. It's a prayer they write, and it spells out the letters in Washington's name using the Hebrew alphabet. But he has a real place in the hearts of the Jews, and he becomes a kind of touchstone for what he then later writes about, how he doesn't see any difference between a Christian citizen and a Jewish citizen. For the record, he writes this for all kinds of different minority religions. Washington did seem quite serious about the fact that religious freedom meant religious freedom. No single sect, no single church, no single religious tradition was to have preeminence.

Indeed. Let's talk about George Washington's visit to Rhode Island. It occurs in 1790. Why is he in Rhode Island? That's a long trip from Washington, D.C., and his home at Mount Vernon.

And who's this character that ends up exchanging these beautiful letters, which we're about to hear, the audience is about to hear, but set up this story for us? Why is Washington in Rhode Island to begin with? So President Washington goes to Rhode Island in 1791 because that's when Rhode Island finally joins the Union.

And part of the reason Washington goes up there is, of course, to, you know, welcome to the Union, we're so glad to have you guys, and some of it is to sort of shore up support for his own political program. What he probably wasn't expecting was that he was going to run into a guy named Moses Satius, brother of Gershom, who was the leader of the Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island. Moses Satius had been a loyalist at one point, but he switches sides, and once the war is over, he sort of becomes, he's one of the most prominent Jews in Newport, functionally president of the congregation. And they write a letter to Washington because, remember, in Rhode Island, there had been attempts in the previous century to seize all Jewish property. And so they don't have, and Rhode Island, again, doesn't at that time have many religious freedom guarantees in its laws. So Moses and the Jews of Newport are writing a letter to Washington to ask them, are you going to protect our rights? We have these federal rights under the Constitution. Are you going to recognize them?

Because we feel like we've earned them. Is this really going to be a place where everyone has the same religious rights? If you wouldn't mind, could you read that letter to us? To George Washington from the synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island. Permit the children of the stock of Abraham to approach you with the most cordial affection and esteem for your person and merits, and to join with our fellow citizens in welcoming you to Newport. With pleasure we reflect on those days, those days of difficulty and danger, when the God of Israel, who delivered David from the peril of the sword, shielded your head in the day of battle. And we rejoice to think that the same spirit who rested in the bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel, enabling him to preside over the provinces of the Babylonish empire, rests and will ever rest upon you, enabling you to discharge the arduous duties of chief magistrate in these states. Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now, with a deep sense of gratitude to the almighty disposer of all events, behold a government, erected by the majesty of the people, a government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance, but generously offering to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship, deeming every one of whatever nation, tongue or language equal parts of the great governmental machine. This so ample and extensive federal union, whose basis is philanthropy, mutual confidence and public virtue, we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the great God, who ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, doing whatever seemeth him good. For all the blessings of civil and religious liberty, which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration, we desire to send up our thanks to the ancient of days, the great preserver of men, beseeching him that the angel who conducted our forefathers through the wilderness into the promised land may graciously conduct you through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life.

And when, like Joshua, full of days and full of honor, you are gathered to your fathers, may you be admitted into the heavenly paradise to partake of the water of life and the tree of immortality. It's just beautiful, and this is Washington's reply. Gentlemen, the citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy, a policy worthy of imitation. All possess a like liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoy the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily, the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction to persecution, no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. He continues, may the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of all 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.

May the Father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths and make us all in our several vocations useful here and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy. Talk about that. I get chills reading that. I think it is so profound to me for two reasons. One is that it sets up an ideal, and we all know that the ideals of freedom are not fully realized in the revolution.

We know that. The country doesn't come close to giving everyone here citizenship, but what Satius and Washington do in these letters is they're setting up that standard. The goal is that you have a country where there is to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, where everyone is going to be judged on the kind of citizen they are, not on what kind of beliefs they have, not on who their parents are.

As a standard to live up to, it's been very influential for me, and I think it's been influential for a lot of other people, both successful and unsuccessful in trying to secure that ideal to make that freedom a real thing, and it's nice to see that Satius actually succeeds in it. The other thing that I think is so significant is that we often, there's so much talk about what the founding fathers believed and where did they go to church, what did they think the relationship between church and state was. Well, this is where Washington, as we Jews say, the big macha, Washington comes right out and he says it.

He says this is not a place where we're going to judge you based on your theological beliefs. All we require is that you demean yourself as good citizens, and there's Satius saying we have all alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship, deeming everyone, whatever nation, tongue or language, equal parts of the great governmental machine. For 1791, that's really remarkable to say we're going to put together a functioning country here, guys. We're not going to require people to take an oath to a certain god or to a certain church or to a certain ceremony.

We're going to take the oath to the country. And a terrific job on the production and editing by our own Monty Montgomery and Reagan Habib. And a special thanks to Professor Adam Jortner. He teaches history and religion at Auburn University. He's the author of A Promised Land, Jewish Patriots, The American Revolution and The Birth of Religious Freedom. Go to Amazon or the usual suspects and pick up a copy of this terrific book. And my goodness, those two letters between Washington and Satius set a standard for the nation to live up to and to secure an ideal worthy of a new nation anchored in liberty.

The story of the Jews in America and how they fought and participated in our revolution here on Our American Stories. We've all got a thing, an obsession. For some of us, it's vintage fashion, our cars, anything we can collect. They all live under one roof, eBay. It's where closets get filled with statement pieces and vintage finds, where must-have sneakers wait for you and designer handbags are the real deal. On eBay, doors open to stacks of the rarest trading cards and a garage stocked with all the car parts you need for any DIY job. eBay's home to whatever thing you're into that keeps you up at night. eBay. Things people love. To listen, just search tablet questions with Pastor Mike.

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