This weekend we mark 250 years of the United States of America. While there is plenty to kvetch about, there is also plenty to kvell about. Many of the founding principles took a long time to come to fruition for all, and some are still a “work in progress,” for which hard work is required to achieve progress. All in all, the 250-year experiment has been good for the Jews. True there is an ever-present proportion of American population that believes in antisemitic sentiments or engages in antisemitic activity, which has become more prevalent recently. Still, we are still way better off than our ancestors who lived under the Nazis, the Soviets, the blood libels and pogroms of Europe, the Inquisition, the Moslem Caliphate, the Crusaders, the Romans, The Greeks, the Persians, the Babylonians, and the Egyptians, just to name a few. We are also better off in the USA than Jews living in most, if not all the gentile world in 2026. So, we have what to be grateful for!
Let us take a step back and consider why America has been such a good place for the Jews in exile. Ideals such as freedom of religion, opportunity, liberty, equality, and other freedoms granted to us by the Constitution, have shaped an environment in which we could thrive.
At the core of it all is the fact that the USA was founded on a belief that these freedoms and rights are endowed to us by our Creator, as referenced in the Declaration of Independence. To quote the pledge of allegiance, “One Nation, Under G-d, With Liberty and Justice for All.” I believe that the only way to ensure liberty and justice for all is to acknowledge that we are one nation under G-d. The idea that EVERY human being is created in the Divine Image and therefore deserves human dignity and equality in the eyes of the law, is the most compelling engine fueling the right of liberty and justice for ALL.
G-d declared to Abraham (Genesis 12:3), “I will bless those that bless you.” Historically, the nations that hosted the Jewish people throughout our diaspora, did well until they started persecuting their Jewish subjects. Let us hope that as America continues to figure itself out and works through the issues facing American society, it remembers this important ideal.
As a Jew, my most fervent wish is for Mashiach to come immediately. Until the fulfillment of that hope, I am grateful that we have a country that offers us these freedoms and opportunities. May G-d bless America on its 250th anniversary to continue functioning as a “Malchus shel chessed” government of kindness and compassion, to serve as a model to rest of the world of what it means to be “One Nation, Under G-d, With Liberty and Justice for All.” To quote G-d Bless America, composed by Jewish songwriter Irving Berlin, “stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from Above.”
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Mendel Rivkin