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President George Washington (1789-1797) and the Jews
by © 2000 Philip Ernest Schoenberg, PhD
Levi Sheftall was the president of the Jewish congregation of Savannah, Georgia. He was the first Jewish leader to contact a president of the United States and to get an official statement of religious toleration. Sheftall did the American thing. He wrote his Congressman a letter who forwarded it to the president. Sheftall, on behalf of the "Hebrew Congregation of the City of Savannah, Georgia," congratulated the president on his election. He thanked him for his treating all people regardless of religion equally, including the Jews. He asked George Washington if this was official government policy.
George Washington, who knew a dramatic moment, paraphrased
Sheftall's letter in his reply. He sent it to all the then
six Jewish congregations in the United States: New York, Newport,
Norfolk, Philadelphia, Savannah, and Charleston. Of course,
it is my policy of the government to treat all its citizens
equally without regard to the religious adherence. This was
not unusual for George Washington. During his two terms in
office, he met with or sent letters to over thirty Christian
sects in which repeatedly reaffirmed the Bill of Rights and
the Constitution in protecting the rights of people to worship
as they please and to suffer no discrimination by the government.
Although a nominal member of the Episcoiapla Church, Washington
refused to take the sacraments since he had become a Mason
in his twenties. He was philosophically a deist like Benjamin
Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. He did not send for a member
of the clergy when he was on his deathbed. Washington usually
preferred fox hunting to church going.
What Sheftall had done was revolutionary. He approached George Washington as a citizen who wanted to know what his rights were. He did humble himself as if he was a court Jew asking a special favor. Thus, Sheftall made sure that religious liberty was official government policy and the Jews were considered part of the American mosaic. We turn to the next case where this fact was part of international law.
Early in 1790, Mr. Jackson, a member of Congress, presented to President Washington a message of congratulations upon his election from "Hebrew Congregation of the City of Savannah, Georgia." It read in part:
| Sir:
Your unexampled liberality and extensive philanthropy have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition which has long as a vail shaded religion -- unrivtted the fetters of enthusiasm --enfranchised us with all the privileges and immunities of free citizens, and initiated us into the grand mass of legislative mechanism. By example, you have taught us to endure the ravages of war with manly fortitude, and to enjoy the blessing s of peace with reference to the Deity and benignity and love to our fellow-creatures
Levi Sheftall, President
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Washington replied in part:
| Gentlemen:
I rejoice that a spirit of liberality and philanthropy is much more prevail than it formerly was among the enlightened nations of the earth, and that your brethren will benefit thereby in proportion as it shall become still more extensive happily the people of the United States have in may instances exhibited empales worthy of imitation, the salutary influence of which will doubtless extend much further, if gratefully enjoying those blessings of peace which (under the favor of heaven) have been attained by fortitude in war they shall conduct themselves with reference to the Deity and charity toward their fellow-creatures.
May the smae wonder-working Deity, who has long since dleliverd the Hebes fromt heir Egyptian opppressors, plantedt hem in thepromised alnd, and whose providnetal agencyuhas lately been conspicoius inestablhsing htese united States an an indpendent nation, still continue to wwater them with thedess of heavy and make the inahbitans of every denominatonparticpate in the temporal and spiritual blessins of that people whose God is Johan.
He sent similar greetings to all six Jewish congregations.
George Washington
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