How America’s Independence Brought Freedom to Its Jews

Coming out of the Fourth of July weekend, it seems fitting to reflect on why Jews should be grateful for America and its independence. Such reflections ensue inevitably from Nachi Weinstein’s interview with the historian Adam Jortner about the Jews of colonial and revolutionary America. Jortner explains that, before the Revolution, Jews were tolerated to a degree almost unheard of in Europe, while, at the same time, they were still subject to much more hostility and discrimination than one might expect. What changed everything was the Revolution itself, and the laws and values of the republic it ushered into existence. (Audio, 65 minutes.)