Rabbi David E. Ostrich, Congregation Brit Shalom
Clergy Column for The Centre Daily Times
To be published Sunday June 2nd
When Mayor Ezra Nanes recently declared Jewish American Heritage Month, I was asked to accept the proclamation and make a statement. I chose to quote one of the most famous statements in American Jewish History, the letter from President George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. Upon his election in 1790, the congregation had congratulated him, and he responded:
“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 alike 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 enjoyed 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.”
It is a wonderful and embracing statement, but the fact that he had to say it reminds us that the acceptance of Jews in this land has not always been a foregone conclusion.
All six Jewish communities in the new United States (New York, Newport, Savannah, Charleston, Philadelphia, and Richmond) wrote letters to Washington—perhaps to curry favor with the new ruler, and each received a similar reply. There have been for us times of great acceptance, opportunity, and good fortune, and there have been times when our people’s safety and status have been under threat. Though we live in the land of freedom, we and many others have not always enjoyed the “domestic Tranquility” and “Blessings of Liberty” that our Constitution seeks.
When Jews first arrived in the “New” World, their feelings were probably a combination of anxiety and hope—a mixture reflected in the names they gave their congregations. Three of the earliest congregations are named Mikveh Yisrael / O Hope of Israel, words that come from Jeremiah (17.12-13). Exhorting our ancestors to trust in the Lord, the Prophet declares: “O Throne of Glory, exalted from of old, Our Sacred Shrine! O Hope of Israel! O Lord!”
These three Mikveh Israel’s were formed in Curacao, Venezuela (1674), Savannah, Georgia (1733), and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1740). I do not know about the state of mind of these early Jews in Curacao and Philadelphia, but I served at Mickve Israel in Savannah and had the chance to learn about their less-than-enthusiastic reception. In 1733, General James Edward Oglethorpe received a charter from King George II to establish a colony that would be a frontier barrier to Spanish encroachment from La Florida. Backed by officers and by men from debtors’ prisons, Oglethorpe set out to establish a utopia. His plan was to ban what he considered “problems:” slavery, lawyers, and Jews. However, six months after he landed, a boatload of Jews from England arrived and sought residency. Oglethorpe was adamantly opposed to their presence, but he was occupied with a crisis. A swamp fever was decimating his colony, and the only doctor had died from the illness. When he found out that one of the Jews was a physician, a Dr. Samuel Nunes, Oglethorpe said that he could disembark. Nunes countered that he would only help if all the Jews on board would be allowed admission. The General relented, and the Jewish settlers named their congregation for the tenuous hope they felt in the new land.
In large measure, our hope has been rewarded. Our faith and institutions are strong. Our people have been free to work hard and aspire to the American Dream. And we have been constructive parts of the American process, contributing in every possible way to America’s building and improvement. We are part of the American fabric, and yet still we wonder and worry. There is much to treasure, and there is much to protect.
Hopefully, we too can find inspiration in God’s Presence—Mikveh Yisrael—and keep alive the religious spirit that filled our ancestors. God can be with us—if we only open our hearts and minds and allow the proximity of God. As Jeremiah also says (17.8), “Blessed is one who trusts in the Lord, whose trust and faith are in God. It is like a tree planted by waters, sending forth its roots by a stream. It does not sense the coming of heat, its leaves are ever fresh; it has no care in a year of drought, it does not cease to yield fruit.”