America Belongs to Us All (Yom Kippur 5787)

Transcript America Belongs to Us All Yom Kippur 5787 Rabbi Ari S. Lorge To celebrate the 250th of America’s founding, the Department of Homeland Security posted a quote on its X account. Alarmingly, it was a quote from Christian Scripture. It read: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.” 1 Even more alarmingly, this was followed by the statement, “May our nation continue to be guided by the light of our Savior.” 2 This post from Homeland Security did not make me feel secure in my homeland. I know it’s just social media. And, having lived in the Midwest and the South, I’m used to displays of a Christian majority that ignore, sideline or erase Jews. But this is different. Here was a federal agency that should know better, and that has a constitutional duty to be better, nevertheless asserting that the United States is a Christian nation. Not only is that historically inaccurate, it is also an old expression of American antisemitism. The scholar of American Jewish history, Dr. Pamela Nadell, whose 2025 book is called Antisemitism, an American Tradition , teaches that there are three prongs of modern American antisemitism: The first is white nationalism. Think of the mob in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us.” The second is antisemitism masked as antizionism. Think of the murderer of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky who shouted, “free Palestine,” as he gunned them down. 3 The third is Christian antiJudaism most often expressed today as Christian supremacy. Think of the arsonist who burned down the Mississippi synagogue this past year who quoted the Christian Bible saying it was a “synagogue of Satan.” 4 Those are extreme examples. We know there are less violent expressions: the swastika etched into a bathroom stall, the schoolroom map that erases Israel, the government tweet that says this is a Christian republic. I wish we lived in a time when there were zero forms of antisemitism, let alone three. And it’s even harder to confront the fact that all three prongs of American antisemitism are active and growing at this very moment, capturing different segments of the country, and strengthening one another. We are a generation called to vigilance on multiple fronts. Rabbi Buchdahl is speaking about the importance of Zionism as we face antizionist-antisemitism. I want to address the third prong of antisemitism that hasn't gotten the same attention in NYC, but is pernicious and front of mind for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the country. I should start by making it emphatically clear that Christian supremacy is not at all synonymous with Christianity. Most Christians are not Christian supremacists. The Jewish community has many Christian allies. Some are sitting in this room, our friends and family, many Christian New Yorkers stand with us in our support of Israel, many are partners in our work to feed our neighbors, just a few weeks ago many Christian leaders stood on our bimah in clear solidarity after an attack. Christian supremacists on the other hand are defined by an ideology: that they have the God-given right to govern and control society, culture, and politics. 5 It is not about personal or communal piety. Rather it is about a fundamental belief that they should hold power in America and have dominion over others. Proponents of the project have had different names. Once they were called Christian Staters, today some use the term Christian Nationalists. The term Christian supremacism is a way to talk about the phenomenon throughout history. No matter the name, no matter the period of American history, they tell the same falsehood to justify their actions: America was founded to be a Christian republic. They insist that the framers did not intend for a separation between Church and State, and that we ought to accept the encroachment of their expression of Christianity into the mechanisms of the government, and into our lives. You may be wondering, “Rabbi, is the sky really falling?” We have our hands full trying to protect ourselves on the subways, on college campuses, in our children’s schoolrooms. We’re facing actual violence. So, other than a tweet here and there, what have Christian supremacists achieved? Quite a bit. In the past 15 years, they have changed public school curricula, overturned the legal precedents protecting Jews and other religious minorities, and passed laws to promote their faith. They are pushing us closer to a nation with religious preference, the very thing many of our ancestors came here to escape. And once they gain a foothold, the downstream consequences can be dire for Jews, and difficult to uproot. We were too slow to confront antizionist-antisemitism. We shouldn’t put ourselves in the same position with Christian supremacy. The new book Sanctioned Bigotry by Dr. Britt P. Tevis is a documentary history of antisemitism in America. Didn’t I pick the best beach reads this summer? Tevis notes that when previous waves of Christian supremacy were successful at “weaving Christianity into local, state, and federal law,” we saw the “unwinding of Jewish rights” 6 and significant financial, social, and political harm to American Jews. 7 In these periods, Jews, and other religious minorities, became something like second class citizens, with fewer rights and protections than their neighbors. New York was not immune. What did this category of antisemitism mean for our parents and grandparents in the five boroughs? In 1905, church-state entanglement meant that Fred Harding, a principal at a Brooklyn public elementary school predominantly attended by Orthodox Jews felt empowered to convene a Christmas assembly and tell these kids, “I want you all to have the feeling of Christ within you” and “Christ loves all but the hypocrites and the hypocrites are those who do not believe in him.” 8 In the 1940’s and 50’s, it meant Jewish New Yorkers were denied unemployment benefits when they refused to accept jobs requiring them to work on Shabbat. 9 In the 1950’s and 60’s, it meant Jewish children were coerced to join in the Lord’s Prayer as it was recited in class, 10 or face beatings and bullying from peers. It meant Orthodox Jews on the Lower East Side being rounded up by police for opening their family-run businesses on the Christian Sabbath, as late 1967. Our ancestors, led by the major Jewish communal organizations, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Congress created a grand coalition determined to make the promise of religious equality real. Alongside secular Americans, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-Day Adventists, Unitarians, Baptists, and other Protestant groups, they won court cases in the 1940's, 50's, and 60’s that seemed to settle once and for all, that America was not a Christian republic. Our country would, as Jefferson, Washington, and Madson desired, keep religion and state far from one another. We imagined the issue was settled. Today, we are learning that others have been working hard to erode those protections and reassert state sanctioned religious preference. While not all of their efforts succeed, they continue to move the needle inch by inch, and sometimes mile by mile. 11 In the last five years: Texas incentivized 12 and then mandated 13 the reading of Christian bible passages in public schools. Florida, Louisiana, and Texas passed legislation to replace qualified public school mental health counselors with unlicensed religious chaplains. Sixteen other states have similar bills pending. 14 Eleven states funded faith-based foster care agencies so that they would offer services on their behalf. These states allow the religious agencies to discriminate against prospective parents. In Tennessee, Jewish couple Elizabeth and Gabe Rutan-Ram were denied the support they needed to adopt. The letter they received from the state-funded agency read, “as a Christian organization, our executive team made the decision several years ago to only provide adoption services to prospective adoptive families that share our belief system.” What disqualified them to be parents? Simply that they were Jews. 15 Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana passed legislation that requires public schools to hang posters of the Protestant version of the 10 commandments in every classroom. Other states are following suit. 16 It can be hard to understand from our seats in New York City, what it is truly like to be a minority in America. One rabbi in Texas shared with me that he went to a regional youth group event that brought Jewish teens together from across the state. The ADL ran a workshop there and asked the kids to share any experiences of antisemitism. Having only recently moved to Texas, he imagined there wouldn’t be many stories. But every single student gave examples of confronting antisemitism. Stories about being called “Christ killer,” about teachers telling them that they were going to burn in hell, about being bullied for being Jewish. He left absolutely shocked by the pervasive hate these students faced in their day-to-day lives. Now the local government is forcing a spotlight on their religious differences in every single classroom. Jewish parents in Texas in tears describing what it is like to send their kids to school this year. Per the state curriculum, there are Jewish first graders in Texas learning the parable of the prodigal son…kindergartners learning the sermon on the mount. I can’t help but think of Gussie Herbert, a Jewish child from Brooklyn in 1905. She had the holy chutzpah to approach her public school instructor and say, “don’t you think that preaching on Christ belongs to…Sunday school…and not to a public school?” 17 From the mouths of babes. We don’t need to be prophets to foresee the way this will embolden bad actors, spread animus against Jews, and all religious minorities. It will further isolate and ostracize our children, our brothers and sisters across the country. How do we combat this form of antisemitism? As early as 1788, a New York State Assemblyman advocating for a law that would give preferential treatment to Christians, quipped to his colleagues that it was okay because “Jews…in the state had made no complaints” 18 This is our first lesson. Our silence will be used against us. If we wish to live as equals with our neighbors, we must not fear demanding our equality. Remember, the work of keeping religion and state separate benefits everyone. It is because the government is neutral toward religion that there is a great flourishing of all faith in America. When we stand for separation, we stand for what has made America an exceptional place for all believers. We should focus our efforts where we can have the greatest impact. Because there has been a decades-long project to appoint judges who are open to state-imposed and state-preferred religion, the courts are a venue where we should invest for defense not victory. Knowing that, we can put our resources into local politics like school board elections, state races, local city races. We will find this a good offense against all three prongs of modern antisemitism. I can’t stress enough the need for us to show up in these spaces as candidates and organizers. We know we cannot fight antisemitism alone. And while many of us feel increasingly alone, there is something quite hopeful to share in this fight. Because Christian supremacy doesn’t reserve its antipathy for us, but is also directed against Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Mormons, Muslims, Quakers, Unitarians, and secular Americans, we are actually not alone. And, the alliance of Christian groups organizing against them increases every day. The more Christian supremacy asserts itself, the larger the coalition against them can grow. When we are part of building and maintaining that type of coalition, we are in fact fulfilling the vision of our founders and framers. As we mark the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, we are witness to a great debate about America. Who are we? Who should we be? There are those in and out of government who are hard at work peddling the myth of America as the great Christian republic that must be restored. There is so much evidence that is false, we would need 25 minutes just to begin to present it. So, I’ve been given a special Yom Kippur dispensation to do just that. When the Jews of Recife first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654… Just kidding. But, I will share just one story that cuts through the noise. In 1788 Alexander Hamilton planned a parade in New York City to show how much support there was for the Constitution. The New York Jewish community was tiny - truly insignificant. But the parade organizers wanted to show a united New York, with all faith leaders marching together. Not knowing any better, they set the parade date for Tisha B’av, our day of mourning and fasting. To even be invited to join was a miraculous experience for the Jews, unthinkable in any other land. What tolerance. But they explained they couldn’t participate. Then, the unprecedented occurred. The Christian majority moved the parade to the following day so that Anglicans, Presbyterians, Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Jews could march together. 19 This wasn’t just tolerance, it was belonging, and it was equality. Wherever you are, online or in person, ask yourself, would such a decision be made where you live today? That parade is the image of what America is at its core. A great march of peoples of all faiths, all creeds, all ethnicities, joined in the project of strengthening this great land where all possess liberty of conscience, inherent natural rights, and the dignity that comes with equality. American Jews have spent 250 years working alongside our fellow Americans to safeguard this vision of our founders. Sadly, old-world antipathies and bigotries found root in this new world, and have remained everpresent. Sometimes marginal, sometimes mainstream, they try to break up our great neighborly march. Christian supremacists say that America is theirs, founded to be fashioned in their image, and that tomorrow belongs to them. But, as we’ve done in every generation, we will find those who will link with us arm in arm, and stride forward with strength because America belongs to us all. 1 2 Peter 3:18. 2 This is not a one time incident. This year, on Good Friday, DHS posted a picture of Jesus on the cross with another quote from Christian scripture. In the caption the agency added the message: “On this solemn day, we reflect on the ultimate sacrifice our Savior made for all humanity. Trust in God’s plan.” Other federal agencies have made similar sectarian posts. 3 Pamela Nadell, “Antisemitism, An American Tradition - The Jacob Rader Marcus Memorial Lecture” (speech, San Francisco, March 16 2026). 4 FBI says man targeted Mississippi synagogue in arson attack because of its 'Jewish ties' | PBS News 5 Christian Supremacy 6 Britt P. Tevis, Sanctioned Bigotry : A Documentary History of Antisemitism in the United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026), 7-8. 7 Tevis, Sanctioned Bigotry , 8. 8 Scott D. Seligman, The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906: Antisemitism and the Battle over Christianity in the Public Schools (Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2025), 1-4. 9 Naomi W. Cohen, Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), 215. 10 Cohen, Jews in Christian America , 189. 11 A few examples at the highest court: Trinity Lutheran Church of Columbia, Inc. v. Comer; Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue; Carson v. Makin; Kennedy v. Bremerton School District; Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond. 12 Full article: Religious Bias and Texas’s Bluebonnet Learning English Language Arts Lessons Texas history curriculum overhaul expands state control over textbooks Texas education board approves Bible-infused curriculum | AP News 13 Texas enshrines Christianity in public schools with sweeping overhaul 14 Texas lawmakers pass bill to let chaplains counsel kids in public schools Why Allowing Chaplains in Public Schools Harms Students | American Civil Liberties Union 15 Jewish couple challenges Tennessee law over adoption Jewish couple asks Tennessee court to end adoption discrimination – Baptist News Global AU in TN court on behalf of Jewish couple denied opportunity to foster - Americans United 16 State laws are putting the Ten Commandments in public schools | AP News 17 Seligman, The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906 , 4. 18 Jacob Rader Marcus, American Jewry: Documents Eighteenth Century (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 1959), 294. 19 Adam Jortner, A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, & the Birth of Religious Freedom (New York: Oxford University Press, 2025), 156. Bibliography Books (* means required reading) -Cohen, Naomi W. Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality . New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.* -Ivers, Gregg. To Build a Wall: American Jews and the Separation of Church and State . Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1995.* -Jortner, Adam. A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, & the Birth of Religious Freedom . New York: Oxford University Press, 2024.* -Marcus, Jacob Rader. American Jewry: Documents Eighteenth Century . Cincinnati: The Hebrew Union College Press, 1959. -Nadell, Pamela S. Antisemitism, An American Tradition . New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2025.* -Pfeffer, Leo. Church, State, and Freedom . Boston: The Beacon Press, 1953. -Pfeffer, Leo. God, Caesar, and the Constitution . Boston: The Beacon Press, 1975. -Philipson, David. “The American Citizen - Church and State - The Bible in the Schools,” in Max Lilienthal: American Rabbi . New York: The Bloch Publishing Co., 1915. -Seligman, Scott D. The Great Christmas Boycott of 1906: Antisemitism and the Battle Over Christianity in the Public Schools . Lincoln: Potomac Books, 2025. -Tevis, Britt P. Sanctioned Bigotry: A Documentary History of Antisemitism in the United States . New Haven: Yale University Press, 2026. -Whitehead, Andrew L., and Samuel L. Perry. Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 2020. Articles -Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “AU in TN Court on Behalf of Jewish Couple Denied Opportunity to Foster.” Press release, August 27, 2026. https://www.au.org/the-latest/press/jewish-couple-tennessee-foster-care/ . -Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “Church-State Separation.” Accessed September 10, 2026. https://www.au.org/church-state-separation/ . -Braunstein, Ruth. “Catholic Christian Nationalism Is Having a Moment.” National Catholic Reporter, July 24, 2024. https://www.ncronline.org/news/catholic-christian-nationalism-having-moment . -Brumley, Jeff. “Jewish Couple Asks Tennessee Court to End Adoption Discrimination.” Baptist News Global. September 3, 2026. https://baptistnews.com/article/jewish-couple-asks-tennessee-court-to-end-adoption-discrimination/ . -Chancey, Mark A. “Religious Bias and Texas's Bluebonnet Learning English Language Arts Lessons.” Religion & Education 52, no. 3–4 (2025): 92–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2025.2541482 . -DeYoung, Kevin. "6 Questions for Christian Nationalists." Clearly Reformed, December 1, 2025. https://clearlyreformed.org/6-questions-for-christian-nationalists/ . -Downen, Robert. “Unlicensed Religious Chaplains May Counsel Students in Texas' Public Schools after Lawmakers OK Proposal.” The Texas Tribune. May 24, 2023. https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/texas-legislature-chaplains-schools/ . -Luby, Britt. “'Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Wife' and Other Posters I Do Not Want in a First Grade Classroom.” Baptist News Global. April