When the American Founders set out to build a new nation, they looked not only to the ideas of the Enlightenment, but also to the stories, symbols, and wisdom of the Hebrew Bible. Jewish Scripture shaped the American moral imagination—its language of covenant, its vision of a people bound by the moral law, its insistence that liberty is a gift from God. From Winthrop's “promised land” to Lincoln's "almost chosen people," Americans viewed themselves as re-enacting the journey of the ancient Israelites to freedom, and built a country that has always welcomed Jews as nowhere else ever had.
A Covenant Renewed gathers essays and conversations that examine this Hebraic inheritance and ponder how Jewish Americans and Jewish ideas have contributed to the American story, and can continue to do so in the future. As America marks its 250th birthday, we celebrate what makes the United States exceptional, the critical role of Scripture in its story, and the singular relationship between America and its Jews.
