Join us on Sunday, October 19 when we'll welcome Rabbi Lance Sussman to talk about Judaism in the earl days of the United States. The American War of Independence was also a revolution in Jewish history. Not since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE had any country enfranchised Jews as citizens and the new nation was thus the first. Jews were the perpetual outsiders until July 4, 1776, when the Founding Fathers of the United States envisioned a new type of society, not yet free of the chains of slavery but aspirationally more inclusive than any other form of government. First at the federal level and then slowly by the states, Jews were fully enfranchised. A wall of separation between government and religion was built, challenged, and rebuilt, a sustained — and mostly successful — battle over the next 250 years.

Lance J. Sussman, PhD, is Rabbi Emeritus of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel and a Past Chair of the Board of Governors of Gratz College. Sussman has taught at Princeton, SUNY Binghamton, and Hunter College. A prolific historian, Sussman’s most recent book,the third in his trilogy with Lynda Barness, is Portrait of a Rabbi-Historian: How Did We Get  Here.