Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

December 28, 2023

George Washington’s Other Letter to the Jews

The Jewish story is the American story.

The first American president’s letter to the Jews of Newport is justly celebrated, but it was not the only reply to a Jewish leader he wrote at the time—a testament, Meir Soloveichik, observes, to U.S. Jewry’s characteristic disunity. In his earlier missive to Levi Sheftall of Savannah, Washington evoked “the same wonder-working Deity” who delivered “the Hebrews from their Egyptian Oppressors” and “whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States.” Soloveichik comments:

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