Dear Friends:
In my message a week ago today, I mentioned in passing that Shearith Israel Congregation in New York not only celebrates Thanksgiving (a rarity for Orthodox synagogues) but actually has had a special Thanksgiving service since the day was first proclaimed as a national holiday by President George Washington in 1789.
Shearith Israel was organized in 1654 by 23 Sephardic Jews who fled the inquisition in Recife, Brazil. (Recife had been ruled by the Dutch but when conquered by the Portuguese, the Inquisition was established there. Its Jewish inhabitants sought to return to The Netherlands but were blown off course and wound up in Dutch-ruled New Amsterdam, soon to become New York.) The Thanksgiving service was first instituted by the synagogue’s hazzan, Gershom Mendes Seixas. Seixas had been among the signers of a declaration to boycott British goods after the Stamp Act, and was forced to flee New York when the British conquered it in 1776. He was the first American-born Jewish religious leader and the first to preach in English. After the American victory in the Revolution, Seixas returned to New York and was one of the clergymen invited to participate in Washington’s inauguration (remember that New York was then the capital).
To this day the service includes a modified version of the Hallel psalms, prayers for the welfare of the country and its leaders, and an address from the rabbi. Afterwards, the congregants can watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade while sipping hot chocolate, and participate in a Thanksgiving “Pack-A-Thon” for the homeless and the hungry together with neighborhood churches.
Hazzan Seixas’ older brother Moses Seixas served as president of the “Hebrew Congregation” in Newport, RI. (While Shearith Israel is the oldest Jewish congregation, it is in its third building and the one it now occupies was built in the late 1800s. The Touro Synagogue in Newport is the oldest synagogue building in use although the congregation itself is the second-oldest.) When the newly-inaugurated President Washington visited Newport in 1790, Moses Seixas wrote him a letter on behalf of the congregation.
Washington’s response stands forever as a testament to the ideals of America (even as we acknowledge that these ideals have not always been actualized, and that Washington himself like Jefferson and many others of our founders were enslavers):
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by 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. . . .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 figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.
As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. (There will be no drop-in hours tomorrow due to Thanksgiving.) For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building.
As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by.
Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Charles L. Arian
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