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This is Chris Flannery with the Claremont Institute.

I call this one The Soul of Freedom

Every year the oldest synagogue in America of freedom.

Every year the oldest synagogue in America, Turo synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, holds a public

reading of a letter written by George Washington to the congregation early in his first term as the first President of the United States.

The letter ranks high among the documents affirming and defining the unprecedented American experiment in religious freedom.

As John Adams said, the real American revolution took place in the minds and hearts of

Americans.

It was a revolution of ideas. The idea of religious liberty that all men by

nature possessed the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own

consciences might be called the soul of that revolution.

In August 1790, three months after Rhode Island had belatedly ratified the Constitution, President Washington honored the new member of the Union with a visit to Newport,

accompanied by his Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and other dignitaries.

As was customary on such occasions, representatives from local religious denominations and civic and business groups read letters of welcome to the President.

Washington's response to the letter from the local Jewish congregation became the historic document that is still read every year in Turo synagogue.

This letter to the Hebrew congregation at Newport was not just meant for local consumption.

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