Leadership Messages

Friends, 

I will take a short sabbatical between December 21st and February 10^th. I am grateful to the Board of Trustees and the congregation for recognizing my work over the past eight years and understanding that providing this time away from my regular duties will help ensure my growth and development as your spiritual leader. I am grateful to all those who have helped plan around my time away, especially Sherry Barnes, Lisa Marcus, and Sam Winograd.

Recently, I took our Kadima teens to the Touro Synagogue in Newport. The Touro Synagogue is the oldest active synagogue in the United States. In 1658, 15 Jewish families arrived in Newport. By the eve of the American Revolution, the community had grown to 25 families. These 25 families constituted the largest Jewish community in the colonies. By 1763, they had purchased land and built the Touro Synagogue. The Touro campus now includes a museum and visitor center, while the synagogue is still an active house of worship. It is interesting that our Jewish population today is dominated by Ashkenazi Jewish culture, while the earliest Jews in America were Sephardic.

The Sephardic community took shape during the Golden Age of Spain in the 11^th and 12^th centuries. But the Golden Age would not last. The Jews of Spain experienced a significant decline in rights and living conditions until their expulsion from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. Many exiles escaped the Inquisition and took refuge in the Netherlands, where they prospered. From here, merchant Jews made their way to the so-called New World. In the Dutch colony of Recife, Brazil, 1500 or so Jews made up a third of the European population. But the Inquisition caught up to them when the Portuguese recaptured Recife in 1654. The Portuguese gave them just three months to leave. Some went to the islands of the West Indies, others returned to Amsterdam, some went to New Amsterdam (now New York), and 15 Jewish families eventually arrived in Newport. The religious freedom unique to Rhode Island allowed them to thrive.

An exchange of letters between a leader of the Newport Jewish community, Moses Sexias, and President George Washington highlighted the importance of religious freedom for the Jews of Newport and the developing nation. In 1789, Washington skipped over visiting Rhode Island during his tour of New England. Some suspect that this was because Rhode Island had not yet ratified the new Constitution of the United States on the grounds that it lacked explicit protection of religious freedom. However, with ratification, Washington planned to return to New England in August 1790. Then, Moses Sexias joined other religious leaders of Newport in presenting letters of welcome to President Washington. Sexias wrote, “Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free citizens, we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events behold a Government, erected by the Majesty of the People–a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance–but generously affording to all Liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship: deeming every one, of whatever Nation, tongue or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine.” President Washington wrote back a few days later, taking Sexias’ theme further. Washington wrote, “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, 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.”

We would do well to remember the long arc of Jewish history in which a unique people with a unique understanding of our Creator endured expulsion from our ancestral homeland to make new homes in every corner of this magnificent world, only to endure yet further persecutions and expulsions. In every place where we have dwelled, we have aspired to be good citizens and neighbors, dwell in peace, and work for the betterment and upbuilding of the communities and nations in which we live.

While Sexias praised God for deliverance into the hands of a benevolent government, Washington expressed a much greater aspiration that the developing nation’s government be a safeguard for the inherent natural rights of all people. It is striving for this aspiration that has made our country a homeland for the largest Jewish community living in peace and security, perhaps excepting only the modern State of Israel. May our prayers for this great nation’s welfare be answered and our hands’ work on its behalf be blessed.

L’shalom,
Rabbi Marc