Posted on 11/23/2011 6:58:54 PM PST by ChicagoHebrew
President George Washington proclaimed Thursday November 26, 1789 as a day of national thanksgiving to God "for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degreee of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us."
The Jewish communities in the United States of that time rejoiced in the role they played in establishing this new country. Already in 1784, leaders of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City (founded 1654) had sent a letter to Governor George Clinton on behalf of "the ancient congregation of Israelites" in which they said: "Though the society we belong to is but small, when compared with other religious societies, yet we flatter ourselves that none has manifested a more zealous attachment to the sacred cause of America in the late war with Great Britain....And we now look forward with pleasure to the happy days we expect to enjoy under a constitution wisely framed to preserve the inestimable blessings of civil and religious liberty."
A new country was born, and the Jews had participated in its formation. They were equal citizens in the United States. This was not true of Jews in any country in Europe or in the Muslim world. American Jews were the first in the history of the diaspora to be citizens on an equal footing with their non-Jewish neighbors, and to have actually participated in fighting for the independence of a new nation.
When President Washington called for a day of Thanksgiving, Jews observed this day with joy and pride. At Shearith Israel in New York, the Rev. Gershom Mendes Seixas arranged a suitable service of prayer, and delivered an address in which he called upon Jews "to support that government which is founded upon the strictest principles of equal liberty and justice."
In subsequent years, days of Thanksgiving were similarly celebrated at Shearith Israel and the other early Jewish congregations. These days were invariably proclaimed in the name of the American people, and were meant to be observed by each citizen according to his or her own faith. In 1817, New York State established an annual observance of Thanksgiving Day. Shearith Israel held services on each subsequent year--except 1849 and 1854. In those two years, the Governor of the State had addressed his proclamation specifically to "a Christian people" instead of to Americans of all faiths. Other than these two years, Thanksgiving has been proclaimed for all Americans, each according to his and her own faith.
It is sometimes heard in Orthodox Jewish circles that Thanksgiving Day is a "non-Jewish holiday" and should not be observed by religious Jews. This view is historically wrong and morally dubious. Thanksgiving Day is a national American holiday for all residents of the United States, of all religions. Jews participated in Thanksgiving from the very beginning of the United States' history. This national holiday belongs to Jews as to all other Americans. It is altogether fitting that Jews join fellow Americans in observing a day of Thanksgiving to the Almighty for all the blessings He has bestowed upon this country. Jews, in particular, have much reason to thank God for the opportunities and freedoms granted to us in the United States.
In his famous letter to the Jewish community of Newport in 1790, President Washington wrote: "May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants--while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid." These are words, expressive of the American spirit at its best, for which we can be thankful.
Happy Thanksgiving.
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Great post - thanks for sharing...
Thanks for the post.
bump
Our family does. And that's what we go by. Brother will bless the food (dad is dead and gone, these days) and we will be thankful for the grub on the plate.
It's less than nice and polite... but it does have a bit of reason to it. Oy vey.
להחזיק את הבירה שלי לראות את זה ...
Never, ever, ever expect me to do the right thing or be polite. ;)
/johnny
It is my understanding that they used the terms "Reverend" and "Minister" in an effort to "fit in" without compromising Jewish law. A Hazzan is, certainly, "revered" and does, in fact, "minister" to his congregation.
Yes they do; mine is one. The observation currently is the previous Sunday, so that the contemporary Thursday one can be with family and friends. There is a Thanksgiving themed pot-luck (pot-planning?) that evening and anyone is welcomed, whether they brought a dish or not. Charitable church or quasi-church organizations like the Salvation Army sometimes have Thursday Thanksgiving dinners for the poor, sponsored by donors.
This past Sunday, there was a sharing time after dinner for how God had blessed various people during the preceding year, in which various Christian hymns of thanks were sung on request (I was the pianist for that) and one lady brought up how the American observation is an echo of an element of the Jewish Shavuot, in which the conclusion of the harvest was celebrated for an entire week, and wished we could be even more thankful. (Everyone said Amen.)
Nice to hear. FYI, I think you're thinking about Sukkot, which is a harvest festival that lasts a week. Shavuot is only one day in Israel, or two in the diaspora.
/johnny
Most intelligent Christian gentiles in America realize and respect the difference between the synagogue system and the church system, and have no problem referring to a contemporary Jewish clergyman as Rabbi So-and-so, modern theological disagreements between Christianity and Judaism notwithstanding. So if anything, the idea of a cantor as a reverend might be a bit confusing (there usually isn’t any special title for persons who sing in Christian services), and the idea of the rabbi being called a minister would be seen as redundant.
The concept of rabbi is not strange to knowledgeable Christians, as it appears in Gospel stories about how the Jewish Jesus lived in his original context. Sometimes the stories related how certain people addressed Jesus as Rabbi (although he personally disdained the usage of the term among his followers) and sometimes other men are referenced as rabbis.
Bad memory. I think you’re correct, that it was Sukkot that was referenced.
This is a very nice message from Rabbi Angel. Thanks for posting it. It is such a nice contrast to the horrific things being said and done by OWS in NYC.
I don’t doubt that’s the case today, but Shearith was founded with 23 Jews in 1645. Mikveh was founded in 1740 with no more than a few dozen members, I think. In total, there weren’t more than a few thousand Jews in colonial America. And most of the gentiles who were 99%+ of the population weren’t learned or even literate.
The ease of producing media today doubtless contributes to the highly increased literacy. Bibles are very inexpensive, and serious protestant/evangelical congregations wouldn’t be caught dead without at least one per congregant. If you want 24/7 gospel preaching, tune your radio to one of maybe four or five evangelical stations that are within range almost anywhere. (Chicago boasts WMBI, for one example.) Also, widespread layman usage of bibles came back into vogue in the Roman Catholic Church with Vatican II, and while they have some editorial differences from the more literal protestant bibles, the gospel stories are clear.
I’m not disagreeing with you. Today, I think they still use the terms mostly because it’s tradition. As a friend of mine who’s a member of Mikveh in Philadelphia once told me “Since 1740, we’ve made only two changes to our services. We removed the prayer for George III and added a prayer for the State of Israel.”
Every church of Christian Science has a Thanksgiving service on Thanksgiving, usually a morning service where a special Thanksgiving sermon is read followed by a time for members of the congregation to express a few words of graditude.
Now that’s tradition alright. Makes me want to dig out my score of “Fiddler On The Roof.”
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