July 4, 2006

Two hundred thirty years ago today on the secular calendar, a combination of Bourgeoisie and Aristocracy, all of Protestant Christian European background, voted to adopt a Declaration of Independence for the United States of America. (An actual vote for independence had occurred two days earlier; one Catholic delegate was actually appointed on July 4 and signed the document later.) The document, primarily written by Thomas Jefferson, is an amazing appeal to natural law and set the moral and ethical tone for the country that they founded. As Jews we can be thankful for this; there have been few places in the world where Jews have been treated as well for as long by the non-Jewish majority. Given the history of religious intolerance in most of the English speaking colonies before this time, one would not have expected such a transformation. Mr. Jefferson and the rest of the Continental Congress, we thank you!

Incidentally, religious Jews around the world were fasting that day -- July 4, 1776 fell on 17 Tammuz, 5536!