Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

October 24, 2019

The American Romance with the Jews, from Cotton Mather to Emma Lazarus

“I shall make you a great nation.”

When Puritans settlers first arrived in New England, they brought with them a passion for the Hebrew Bible and a desire to model themselves after the ancient Israelites—and, moreover, a belief that contemporary Jews, as God’s chosen people, deserved their respect and tolerance. Michael Medved traces the various manifestations of this sentiment from English Puritans to John Adams. Perhaps the most striking example he cites is that of Ezra Stiles:

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