As Americans marked the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding, the 鶹ýӳ Zahava and Moshael J. Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought brought 鶹ýӳ students on a journey through key sites of the American founding to explore the deep and often overlooked role that Jewish ideas, texts, and communities played in shaping our republic.
The trip opened on Sunday evening, June 7th, at Mishkon Tfiloh in Providence, Rhode Island, where Straus Center Deputy Director Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern and Senior Scholar and Director of the Impact Office Dr. Tevi Troy set the stage for the goal of the trip: to understand how deeply Jewish ideas and ideals shaped the American story. Dr. Halpern detailed how King David has served as a wellspring of American heroism throughout the history of the United States, drawing from a chapter of his book Jewish Roots of American Liberty. Dr. Troy then lectured about the role Jews played in the events surrounding America’s bicentennial.
At dinner that evening, Straus Scholar Adina Feldman (SCW ‘26) offered an address — "Is History Asking Too Much of Us?" — in which she argued that "In America today, many people have stopped believing in the American story altogether. They invest in their camp, their coalition, their community, but no longer in the larger project that binds them together. The same danger exists within the Jewish world." Her words, later featured as a cover story in , urged the students to “stop asking whether there will be a future or whether you belong in it. And instead...ask the questions Joshua asked: How do I help build it? How do I prepare myself for it? How do I become large enough to meet it?”
The next morning brought the students to Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, for a symposium on religious liberty that anchored the trip's intellectual framework. Rabbi Dr. Halpern opened the event, which featured local community members as well as congregants of Congregation Shearith Israel, with a lecture titled "The Founders and the City of Faith: How Jerusalem Forged Washington's Vision for America," tracing the remarkable influence of a single biblical image on the American imagination. The verse from Chapter 4 of Micah — "each man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall make them afraid" — served as a crucial scriptural source for the new republic. The verse was especially beloved by President George Washington, who cited it over fifty times in letters and speeches, most notably in his renowned letter to the Jewish congregation in Newport. "Together," Rabbi Dr. Halpern reminded the attendees, "we can be not only a Jewish community but an American community flourishing under our own vines and fig trees."
Dr. Joseph Loconte, director of The Rivendell Center, and scholar and producer of a new documentary about Founding Father Dr. Benjamin Rush, followed with a lecture examining why the American Revolution succeeded where the French Revolution failed. His answer centered on Rush, who fused democratic ideals with biblical vision. Rush called for abolition because, he argued, God requires that all people be treated equally. Loconte pointed to Philadelphia's July 4, 1788, parade celebrating the Constitution's ratification, at which, as Rush himself described, the rabbi of the Jewish community walked "locked in the arms of two ministers of the gospel" — a moment Rush called "the civic expression of the Constitution's commitment to religious liberty." In no other political regime in the world, Loconte observed, would Jews have encountered such a display of spiritual solidarity and political equality. America, from its founding, was a place where Jews could find a warm embrace.
Straus Center Resident Scholar Dr. Shaina Trapedo continued the program with remarks on "Psalms and the American Spirit," exploring the Psalms' influence on the founding generation. From the Geneva Gloss's treatment of Psalm 146 to the Bay Psalm Book's earnest effort to make the Psalms singable for Puritan congregations, Dr. Trapedo traced how the wisdom of the Hebrew Bible traveled across the Atlantic and took root in American soil. Straus Scholar Esti Hess (SCW '28) reflected later that “It was striking to see how inherently connected society is to Tehillim [Psalms], intellectually and emotionally, even without always knowing it. It is tied so intensely to national identity.” Dr. Troy then offered a sweeping overview of the relationship between American presidents and the Jewish community across 250 years. Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, Director of the Straus Center and rabbi of Shearith Israel, concluded by emphasizing the role of the Hebrew Bible in shaping the American concept of liberty and how the Touro Synagogue can continue to impact the spiritual flourishing of America.
After lunch with the members of the Rhode Island Jewish community, Rabbi Soloveichik led a tour of the Touro Synagogue. He presented a vivid retelling of the synagogue’s history and Shearith Israel’s eventual acquisition after the synagogue was maintained by the Goulds, a local Quaker family. The students also visited the cemetery adjacent to Touro, the resting place of Judah Touro himself. The site, Rabbi Soloveichik reflected, encapsulates the story of Jews in America: the home they found here, and the spiritual embrace that made it possible.
From Newport, the trip moved to Boston and the site of Bunker Hill, and that evening, at Congregation Beth El Atereth Israel in Newton, Rabbi Soloveichik gave a community lecture that brought the audience deep into a work by John Trumbull, an American painter and military officer. Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence, Rabbi Soloveichik explained, is not a military painting; rather, it is a celebration of the written word, of principles enshrined in a document. "The truest treasure in America is not a work of art,” he said, “but a document full of ideas." Borrowing the words of the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Rabbi Soloveichik highlighted how America is a covenantal society that values its covenant above all, making that its highest treasure.
Rabbi Soloveichik then compared Trumbull’s work to Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware. Though the work is often criticized as ahistorical, Rabbi Soloveichik comments that the details were thoughtfully placed to send a message. In expression of his abolitionist beliefs, Leutze placed a Black soldier — identified by historian David Hackett Fischer as a member of the 14th Massachusetts Regiment, part of the first integrated unit in American military history — prominently in the boat. A Native American and an Irish immigrant appear among the crew as well. The painting, Rabbi Soloveichik argued, does not depict the actual crossing, but a vision: not diversity for its own sake, but the American idea in practice, calling all people toward a shared covenant, in which all people are equal.
Tuesday brought the students to the Yale University Art Museum, where they stood before more of Trumbull's original paintings, moving from the Battle of Bunker Hill, with its twin depictions of American and British soldiers falling side by side, through the Death of General Montgomery to The Resignation of General Washington. The group also toured the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Torah scrolls from the Revolutionary period remain kosher and in use, a living thread connecting the present to the Sephardic world of 17th-century Brazil and the very beginnings of Jewish life in the New World.
The trip then continued to Philadelphia, where the students visited the Museum of the American Revolution, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, and Carpenters' Hall — the site of the First Continental Congress. They enjoyed a tour of an exhibit entitled The Declaration’s Journey, led by Collections and Exhibits Director Matthew Skic and Associate Curator James Taub. Among the highlights was an early copy of the Declaration of Independence sent across the Atlantic by Jonas Phillips, a Jewish patriot, now returned to Philadelphia for the first time since he mailed it to a friend in 1776, only to have it intercepted by the British. At Independence Hall, the scholars reflected on the Constitution as the fulfillment of the Declaration's promise — and on what it means, 250 years on, to be the heirs of both.
After visiting the National Portrait Gallery and viewing Gilbert Stuart's Lansdowne Portrait and W.F.K. Travers's Abraham Lincoln, the trip moved to the nearby Museum of the Bible, where the group had the opportunity to hear from Leo Terrell, a veteran civil rights attorney who currently serves as Chair of the Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Senior Counsel at the Justice Department. He detailed how the current administration is fighting back on the legal front against the world’s oldest hatred. Rabbi Dr. Halpern continued the evening with a lecture titled “This is My Fight Song: America’s Original, Biblical National Anthem,” where he explored how the story of Exodus, especially the Song of the Sea in Exodus 15, continues to color the American story.
On Thursday, the students toured Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello estate. Nestled between the two is the grave of Rachel Philips Levy, a Jew and the mother of Uriah Phillips Levy (grandson of Jonas Phillips), who maintained and preserved Monticello as Jefferson left it, so that the estate would be available for many future generations to explore. After driving back to Washington, D.C. for dinner, students had the chance to hear from Director of Domestic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and The Wall Street Journal columnist Matthew Continetti. In a conversation moderated by Dr. Troy, they discussed religious freedom in America, how to confront anti-Jewish sentiments in the government, and the two offered career advice. The night finished off with a walking tour of the D.C. Monuments, led by Dr. Troy.
Ellie Trapedo (SCW '28) reflected that “spending the week touring the land and learning about America’s deep Hebraic roots was such an enriching and impactful experience. I feel inspired and equipped to report what I learned and help restore the American story.”
