This weekend American Jews have been invited by presidential proclamation to observe the Sabbath.

On May 4th, President Trump issued a proclamation, which reads,

In special honor of 250 glorious years of American independence,

and on the weekend of Rededicate 250, a national jubilee of prayer, praise, and Thanksgiving.

Jewish Americans are encouraged to observe a national Sabbath, from sundown on May 15th to nightfall on May 16th, friends, family,

and communities of all backgrounds may come together in gratitude for our great nation. This

day will recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of setting side time for rest, reflection,

and gratitude to the Almighty. It's worth pausing on just how astonishing a thing that is.

For most of Jewish history, when the most powerful ruler in the world

turned his attention to the Jews, it was not to encourage their devotion to Jewish law.

It was to constrain the Jews, to tax the Jews, to suppress them, or to put an end to the

miraculous story of the Jews in history. Pharaoh, Antiochus, Hadrian, the Crusader Kings,

the Tsars. Even the more benign versions of imperial power, like the Austro-Hungarian Empire or

Napoleon, these things came with the implicit

condition that Jews would become less Jewish in exchange for the protections of civic life.

Modernity asked the Jews to assimilate, but America is exceptional, and now in the year of America's

250th birthday, the incumbent of the most powerful office on earth,

the leader of the most powerful nation, has issued a formal proclamation, encouraging the Jews

to be more Jewish. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest this

week, to discuss all this is the writer, historian, Washington insider, and former

government official Tevi Troy. Tevi published an article about President Trump's proclamation

on May 14th, 26, a national Sabbath for American Jews in the Wall Street Journal. His article

...