Leave Amy Coney Barrett’s Faith Out of This

One of the most enduring descriptions of American pluralism was composed by a religious Jew. In 1790, Moses Seixas led the dwindling Jewish community of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I. He had struggled to sustain the religious observances that endowed Jews with a distinct identity: public readings of the Torah, circumcisions of baby boys, and the keeping of kosher dietary laws. Soon Newport’s remaining Jews would depart for other communities as opportunity there dwindled, and Seixas could have easily been forgotten in the annals of American history.

One letter would ensure his immortality. Newport was visited by George Washington, and Seixas welcomed the president with a paean to the Constitution’s ban on religious tests for public office. Jews, Seixas wrote, beheld in America “a Government, which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance — but generously affording to All liberty of conscience, and immunities of Citizenship.” In his response, Washington echoed Seixas’ words, agreeing that “happily” the government of the United States “gives to bigotry no sanction.” He then added a reflection of his own. “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of,” Washington emphasized; all faiths would be granted equal “immunities of citizenship.”

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