Jefferson and Religious Freedom

Over the years, I have taken high-school students to Washington D.C. for a Jewish social justice conference where they learn about various issues and lobby their members of Congress. It is an amazing opportunity for young Jewish teenagers to learn about the relationship between Jewish values and public policy. 

During these trips, we often have Havdalah services at the Jefferson memorial, which sits on the Potomac River and majestically faces the mall, commemorating the legacy of our third president and celebrating his dedication to our democracy.

As I take students into the memorial, I ask them to read the words that are inscribed on to the northwest wall:

“No man shall be compelled to frequent or support religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. ” (Excerpted from A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, drafted in 1777)

It was the first amendment to our Constitution that later codified these words by requiring that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

As they read Jefferson’s words, I tell students about the ways in which a separation between religion and state has benefited us—protecting our religious liberty by ensuring that our government does not impinge on our beliefs. I speak to the students about a movement in our country that has long sought to destroy this wall of separation.  

Today, this movement is stronger than ever. Bolstered by a Supreme Court majority that seems to share their agenda, Christian nationalist conservatives are now actively pursuing legislation to test the first amendment in the courts. In Louisiana, a bill was recently passed that mandates the display of the ten commandments in public schools. In Oklahoma, the state attorney general ordered public schools to teach the Bible. This follows a series of federal court decisions permitting organized prayer at public school events.

As Jews who know well what it feels like to be “strangers in a strange land”, we should be especially sensitive to any effort to weaken the safeguards of pluralism and minority expression. We should recognize that Jefferson’s separation between religion and state is fundamental to the protection of religious freedom in this country.

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