At that time, the United States was unique in the world as a nation founded, not on the hereditary right of a dynastic family to rule, but rather on a set of concepts, as historian Yaari Nadav Tal writes:
President George Washington captured the new path his young nation was taking in his 1790 letter to the Jews of Newport. Unlike Europe, which still imposed liabilities based on religion and regulated the public expression of faith, the United States guaranteed people irrespective of their faith the equal enjoyment of religious freedom: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” The United States secured religious freedom not grudgingly but graciously: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Jews in America were keenly aware of the fact that in England, and in some parts of Europe, Jewish people were not able to attain the status of a full citizen and that their civil rights were limited. Many of them had come to North America to seek full religious freedom and at the same time the right to participate fully in civic government.
To underscore the promise of America to these Jewish citizens, Washington not only wrote warmly to them, but also visited their synagogue. The act of the U.S. president setting foot into a synagogue was dramatic and radical.
Most heads of state in Europe or Great Britain didn’t do such things. The integrity of a nation founded on concepts is based on the consistency and honesty with which it applies those concepts to concrete specific situations. Washington understood that, at the very beginning of United States history, it was important for him to take such actions, as Yaari Nadav Tal explains:
On August 18, 1790, congregants of the Touro Synagogue of Newport, Rhode Island, warmly welcomed George Washington to both their place of worship and their city. Washington’s letter of response to the synagogue, delivered on the same day, has become famous for reinforcing the ideal of religious liberty in American life. Washington promised the synagogue more than mere religious tolerance, explaining that "It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights." The letter continued with the promise that "the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”
Washington understood that it was not despite his own firm religious beliefs that he could work to ensure the freedom for various other religions to be practiced, but rather that it was precisely because of his own beliefs that he was motivated to guarantee religious liberty to religions which differed from his own.
Washington was a Christian, and more specifically, he was an Anglican or Episcopalian. He was more than a mere member or attender of church. He was a vestryman and churchwarden, dedicating time and energy to his faith community.
The belief system to which he was committed demanded that he honor the religious liberties of other people, and the strength of his commitment was the force which drove him to ensure those freedoms for other faiths.
