Podcasts

Before they wrote a revolution together, Adams and Jefferson first clashed over faith.

An Orthodox Jew wanted to hold services in his house. Now the case is going to the Supreme Court.

Longfellow's elegy for the dead meets Lazarus's hymn to the living—together marking a religious liberty unique to America, and still unfolding.

Washington's letters to American Jews reveal a nation built on both unity and religious difference. Why does the Newport letter loom larger than the rest?

The Declaration of Independence was far from unanimous, yet it became the backbone of the Revolutionary War.

Washington’s Rhode Island visit reflected the same principle behind his outreach to religious minorities: no member of the Union was too small to belong.

How Rhode Island's tradition of religious liberty and distrust of centralized power shaped its reluctant path to ratifying the Constitution.

Washington's letter to the Jews of Savannah illuminates the theological foundations of America's uniquely warm embrace of its Jewish citizens.

The history of the Sheftall family helps explain why the Jews of Savannah were the first to write to President Washington.

A study of President Washington's letters to the Quakers and Catholics shows how he sought to unify a religiously diverse nation under his leadership.

Combating the Iranian ring of fire.

Tensions in the colonies will reach a boiling point in the months leading up to the Revolutionary War.

The Touro Synagogue in Newport was near collapse 30 years after its founding, but not before it transformed American history. 

American Jews play prominent roles in celebratory parades in New York and Philadelphia.

A centuries-old prayerbook, and the remarkable family to whom it belonged, introduces us to the story behind George Washington's famous letter to the Jews. 

A story of heroism or of madness?

Economic opportunity and religious freedom would continue to shape the American colonies in the early eighteenth century.

From Genesis to the Puritans.

The first ambassador to Christendom.