Tucker Carlson recently
hosted on his podcast the radical antisemite and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes, who used
the platform to denounce "organized Jewry" and "Zionist
Jews" as enemies of America. He also declared that Jewish conservatives
such as Ben Shapiro, Mark Levin, and Josh Hammer "will never be
Americans" and should "get the f— out of America and go to
Israel."
Shame on Carlson for hosting such a bigoted conversation, which highlighted how little he and Fuentes know
about America's history. America’s founding generation expressed great respect
and admiration for the Jewish people and welcomed them to the new nation they had
formed. America’s founders would be horrified by this conversation.
The
Hebrew Influence on Early America
Many of the early immigrants to
America considered themselves a Second Israel and looked to the story of Israel
in the Old Testament for guidance and inspiration. Their love for the Jewish Scriptures
was confirmed by a ten-year study to determine where the Founders got their
ideas for the founding of America. This study discovered that they quoted the
Bible far more than any other source, and they quoted Deuteronomy more than any
other biblical book.
Being learned men in both Scripture
and history, it was clear to the Founders that the Jews had given the world the
two greatest influences for good on the human race--the Bible and Jesus the Messiah.
From there it was an easy, logical step to warmly embrace the Jewish people. For
example, John Adams, America’s second president, wrote,
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations (Hyatt, The Book that Made America Great, 91).
This
attitude was characteristic of early America. For example, Benjamin Rush, a
Philadelphia physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was
delighted to see a Jewish rabbi so warmly embraced at a July 4th
parade in Philadelphia. Rush, who was a devout Christian, wrote,
The rabbi of the Jews locked in the arms of two ministers of the Gospel was a most delightful sight. There could not have been a more happy emblem of that section of the Constitution, which opens all its power and offices alike, not only to every sect of Christians, but to worthy men of every religion (Hyatt, The Book that Made America Great, 92).
George Washington’s Pro-Jewish Stance
In
1790, George Washington visited the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island
where he was warmly received by this Hebrew congregation. In his official
welcome, Moses Seixas compared the Revolutionary War to the
struggles of ancient Israel and compared Washington to King David and to
Daniel, saying,
With pleasure we reflect
on those days—those days of difficulty, & danger when the God of Israel,
who delivered David from the peril of the sword, shielded your head in the day
of battle: and we rejoice to think, that the same Spirit who rested in the
Bosom of the greatly beloved Daniel enabling him to preside over the Provinces
of the Babylonish Empire. rests and ever will rest upon you, enabling you to
discharge the arduous duties of Chief Magistrate in these States.
Wahington
was obviously moved by these sentiments and responded that same day in a letter
in which he addressed the members of this congregation as “children of the stock
of Abraham.” He assured them that because of America’s commitment to religious
liberty they could expect to experience the words of the Old Testament prophet,
who in Micah 4:4 said, Each one shall sit in safety under his own vine and
fig-tree and there shall be none to make him afraid. Washington went on to say,
For happily the Government of the United States
gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under
its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all
occasions their effectual support.
Yaari Taal, of George Washington University, says that Washington’s remarks to this congregation established a precedent for protecting religious liberty and pluralism in the United States that persists to this day.
Early America’s embrace of the Jewish
people led to America becoming a haven for persecuted
Jews from all over the world. This resulted in America becoming home for the
largest Jewish population in the world. This remained true until 2003 when the
Jewish population in Israel surpassed that in America.
Zionism and Israel's Right to Exist
The
Zionist movement began in the late 1800s and blossomed in the 1900s leading to Jews
in Palestine declaring their independence and forming the modern state of
Israel on May 14, 1948. Eleven minutes later, the United States recognized this
declaration, the first nation to do so.
Zionism
is the right of the Jewish people to have their own nation and determine their
own destiny. If you are against Israel’s right to exist, you have positioned
yourself on the side of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Iranian mullahs, and other terrorist
groups who want to see Israel destroyed.
It is, therefore, disheartening to
see conservatives like Tucker Carlson buying into such antisemitic hatred. Such
Jewish hatred had no place at America’s founding and should be given no place
in America today. Antisemitism is un-American.
This article is derived from Dr. Eddie Hyatt's new book, The Book that Made America Great, available from Amazon and his website at http://eddiehyatt.com.
