It would reflect immortal honor, it would attract the blessings of Heaven upon America, if the first impression were here to be made upon the Jews as a nation. We should give them a free and uncircumscribed toleration. We have not led them away captive. We do not, or we should not, wish them to sit down and weep by the waters of America, and to hang their harps upon the willows that grow therein.
It would become those states in America, which can prudently alter their religious tests, to alter them in favor of the Jews. It would become the other nations of the world to imitate in this instance the custom of those states of America, which make no political distinction between a Jewish and a Christian citizen. Our Savior said, "My kingdom is not of this world." Those who demand an acknowledgment that the New Testament was written by divine authority, before an admission to the offices of a commonwealth, say, that his kingdom is of this world. They speak a language different from his. In this point they are not Christians.
I conceive it to be our duty as followers of Christ, to extend our toleration to the Jews, without considering whether it would or would not tend to the temporal advantage of the commonwealth in which we live.
We are told by the apostle, that the whole Jewish nation is to be converted to Christianity, that "all Israel shall be saved," Romans 11:26. I conceive that the drawing a political distinction between us and them, has a tendency to prevent their conversion, that the unlimited toleration of them has a tendency to bring them over to the gospel, and therefore that the unlimited toleration of them is the cause of God.
So how should 18th-century Jews have received such an offer? Were their rights contingent upon a hoped-for surrender of their identity? Notice that Crawford didn't demand acceptance or equality of Jews, but "toleration." Was this true freedom - or were there strings attached?
This question echoes through American Jewish history. Jews have often been welcomed, but rarely without unspoken conditions. When they needed America the most, during the Holocaust, America turned its back on them. At best, acceptance has been framed as a reward for good behavior or assimilation. At worst, it has come wrapped in the hope that we will eventually cease to be who we are.
The sad truth is that Jews will never be considered fully American by a significant segment of the population. Call it antisemitism, call it subtle bigotry, or call it an instinctive recognition that Jews are members of an ancient and enduring covenantal nation. Whatever the name, the reality has never fully disappeared - and it won’t.
But that doesn’t mean we retreat. On the contrary: we must fight for our rights precisely because they are not guaranteed. We must be patriotic, not as a performance for others, but because America deserves it. And we must insist, without apology, that we are as American as anyone else.
Eighteenth-century Jews were not insulted by missionary efforts. They understood that in a Christian culture, evangelism was the price of admission to legal and social toleration. And they saw that America, even with its flaws, offered something revolutionary: freedom.
But freedom, once won, must be defended. The danger is not only from those who would strip it away, but also from our own complacency. History has shown, and is showing again, that Jews can become victims no matter how patriotic or assimilated we are. Sometimes it is precisely when Jews feel most secure that society reminds them they are still seen as the other.
The fight for freedom did not end in 1776, or 1784. For American Jews, that means never forgetting that liberty is not inherited - it is earned, defended, and demanded. In every generation.
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"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022) |
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