There's one way of understanding patriotic devotion, perhaps an especially American way of

understanding it, that puts an emphasis on belief in the ideas of the country.

America stands for rights and freedom and equality and the consent of the

governed and all of these wonderful democratic features. And if you believe in those things,

then there's a good chance you'll feel patriotically disposed to the United States. But there is

an older form of patriotic devotion that is perhaps less focused on the creedal

ideas of a country, and is instead the recognition of a debt. In this conception of patriotism,

a citizen recognizes all of the sacrifices and labors that previous generations have undertaken

in order to establish a way of life.

And whatever you have and whatever you know and your way of being is all shaped and formed

by that way of life, so that you can no more escape its influence than you can escape your

very body.

Patriotism is a recognition of the obligations that you have

when you recognize all that you owe to generations who made the place that made you. Now, ask

yourself, what are the arts and disciplines of learning that help to nurture that latter form

of patriotism? How could you inculcate that

recognition of all that you owe in children, in students, in the citizenry at large? My guest today

has a simple and powerful answer to that question. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,

Jonathan Silver. That guest is the author Rick

Richmond. The nation that Rick is thinking about is the Jewish people and its political expression

in the modern state of Israel. How can a young woman or man today, in the spring of

2023, when Israel is about to celebrate its 75th birthday. Come to appreciate all that they

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