kosher bookworm: alan jay gerber

American Jewish history: Freedom comes alive

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At the prompting of one of our community's most respected leaders, Avrumy Zelmanovitz, my son, David, and I recently visited the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. This was a visit that will not soon be forgotten. As a teacher of both history and English for over 40 years, anything to do with American or Jewish history would garner my attention; to experience the confluence of both cultures within one institution was a treat.

The catalogue detailing the museum’s major features andexhibits, "Dreams of Freedom," a 220 page coffee table book, is the subject of this week’s review, as we approach next week’s celebration of the 4th of July.

The volume’s lead essay, "Freedom," is authored by the leading historian of American Jewish history, Dr. Jonathan Sarna, who takes us through a lovely and intellectually informative ''tour'' of the museum. In his thoughtful personal take on the significance of the museum's theme of freedom, Dr. Sarna informs us of that "whether Jews were seeking freedom, acquiring freedom, defending freedom, advancing freedom, promoting freedom, or, as was sometimes the case, misusing freedom — whether they were striving to improve themselves, their community, their country, or the world at large — freedom has always stood at the center of the American Jewish experience.

“Historian Oscar Handlin memorably characterized the American Jewish story as nothing less than an 'adventure in freedom'."

This thematic devotion to the concept of freedom and living in a free society flows through each featured exhibit. Our landing on these shores from the very beginning reflected a fleeing from persecution, whether religious or economic, physical or spiritual. We were on an everlasting historical treadmill of a journey that was to reflect upon our everlasting desire to be free as human beings in every sense.

Dr. Sarna notes the following, which goes to the heart of our experience in a freedom-centered America:

"The famed correspondence between Jews and George Washington went even further in defining the freedom of Jews in the new nation. The address of the 'Hebrew Congregation in Newport' to the President, composed for his visit on August 17, 1790, praised the new government for 'generously affording to all liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship' and thanked G-d 'for all of the blessings of civil and religious liberty' that Jews now enjoyed under the Constitution. Washington, in his oft-quoted reply, appropriated a phrase contained in the Hebrew congregation's original letter, and characterized the United States government as one that 'gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.'

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