A New World, A New Choice:
Jews and the American Revolution
Dr. Jonathan Sarna in conversation with Dr. Laura Liebman
What led Jews to cross the Atlantic, first to the New World in 1630 and later to North America in 1654? What pressures were they fleeing, and what opportunities were they seeking?
As the American colonies moved toward independence, how did Jewish immigrants’ European experiences shape their political loyalties and moral choices? Why did some support the Revolution while others opposed it, and what tensions did these decisions create within the emerging Jewish communities?
Join Dr. Jonathan Sarna (Brandeis University) and Dr. Laura Leibman (Princeton University), two of the foremost experts on early American Jewish history, to explore how Jews experienced, debated and helped shape the American Revolution – and how their choices during this pivotal moment reshaped both Jewish life and American history.
America at 250: Jewish Communities at the Birth of the Nation
Stories of the Revolutionary War tend to focus on Betsy Ross sewing the Stars and Stripes, Paul Revere’s midnight ride to warn the Minutemen and George Washington and his ragtag army barely surviving the winter at Valley Forge.
But Haym Salomon is sometimes absent, although after being sentenced to execution for attempting to blow up a British warehouse on Washington’s orders, escaped and helped finance the decisive Battle of Yorktown, as is Francis Salvador, the first Jew killed in the Revolutionary War. Missing too is Mordecai Sheftall, the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the Continental Army.
While Jews made up less than 0.04 percent of the American population in 1776, they left an indelible mark on the nation’s founding.
As we celebrate the Semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, The Temple Emanu‑El Streicker Cultural Center is proud to highlight and honor the often-overlooked contributions of our Jewish forebears in a program led by Dr. Jonathan Sarna (Brandeis University), Dr. Laura Arnold Leibman (Princeton University), Joseph Weisberg (PhD candidate, Brandeis University), Dr. Shari Rabin (Oberlin College) and Dr. Toni Pitock (Drexel University), some of the foremost experts in early American Jewish history.