Exodus and America: Hebraic Heritage in Our National History

On the eve of Jewish Passover, many Americans were unaware of the sacred day. However, some were celebrating the Passover and the United States’ heritage.

Former New York Times and Washington Post journalist Bari Weiss hosts the “Honestly” podcast. The April episode titled “The Story That Made–And Saved–America ” focuses on the interwoven history of America and the Hebraic Exodus, and features Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. The Rabbi is a teacher at Yeshiva University and leads the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in New York, the oldest synagogue in the United States.

Soloveichik began by explaining the process, history, and importance of the Passover and the Exodus, and illustrated the Exodus’s influence in early America. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson suggested designs for the U.S. Seal that included images from the Exodus. Although neither suggestion was adopted by Congress in 1782, Soloveichik pointed out, “It’s an important story because it highlights how these Founders, who, by the way, were probably two of the least devout of the Founders, Franklin and Jefferson, nevertheless understood the power behind this story and the universal implications of the Exodus tale.” 

Another example of how the Founders were inspired by the Hebraic heritage occurred in 1790. The Jewish Community of Savannah wrote a letter praising President George Washington for his support of religious tolerance. Soloveichik excitedly detailed how Washington’s response was a sensitive religious acknowledgement from the newly elected president. Weiss restated Washington’s words, “We see that the God that wrought miracles for you in Egypt, He was the one that wrought miracles for us in the Revolution.” He notes that both the Savannah and Newport letters from Washington to the Jews must be read in tandem, because they explain the early civil and religious respect given to the Jews, which was so unlike other countries of that day.

Weiss and Soloveichik discussed how the Exodus was used by the Abolitionists before and during the Civil War. Soloveichik explained that the Liberty Bell became an abolitionist symbol because of the inscribed Leviticus 25:10, a direct reference to the Hebrew Year of Jubilee in the Holy Land. Abraham Lincoln related the Exodus to the plight of the slaves in “Eulogy to Henry Clay” and Frederick Douglass explained the double meaning of the spiritual “Canaan, Oh Sweet Canaan,” in his book, “My Bondage and My Freedom.”

Weiss brings up Harriet Tubman and her nickname of “Grandma Moses” as the American figure most identified with the “Exodus”. Soloveichik explains the implicit meaning of the spiritual “Go Down Moses”; the escape of the slaves to the “promise land” of the North, and the consequences of ignoring the warning to Pharaoh; in this case, continued enslavement by white slave owners. 

The conversation jumped ahead to the 1956 blockbuster release of “The 10 Commandments” in the midst of the Cold War. The Rabbi pointed out that the biblical film directed by partly-Jewish acclaimed director Cecille DeMille was an anti-communist movie, that “was another way of identifying the American story with the Hebraic story of the Exodus, which spoke profoundly to the American ethos at the time.” 

The story of the Exodus had a profound impact on the Civil Rights Movement. The year before “The Ten Commandments” was released, Rosa Parks was arrested in the height of the Civil Rights Movement, making the film not only an anti-communist drama, but a cultural commentary. Weiss mentioned Martin Luther King’s 1968 speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”, and the pair described it as an example of the Exodus having a profound influence on the rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement. 

King concluded his speech with, “And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!” Soloveichik remarked, “The greatness of King is bound up in the fact that it’s an American story. King does not reject the American idea, nor does he reject the values of the American founding, but demands that America live up to its founding ideals,” highlighting the importance of the Exodus’s emancipation themes to Black Americans in their quest for liberty and equality.

Weiss questioned why the cultural significance of biblical stories like the Exodus has subsequently disappeared. 

Soloveichik replied, “I assume the only answer [that] can be is that part of the upheaval of the years that followed, was a wholesale rejection of much of the heritage of the past. That relates to the way we teach American history, and it relates to the way that the bible was central to American founding and to Western civilization itself. So now we’ve reached an odd point where the bible is not only not studied with reverence, it’s not studied for the impact it had on history.” Soloveichik and Weiss discussed how culture views the Bible as unnoteworthy, and subsequently does not know the shared Exodus heritage.

“The loss of reverence for the Hebraic heritage in America is something that should be of deep concern to American Jewry. Because the embrace we received in America, is bound up with the American reverence for not just the Exodus story, but the entire Hebraic heritage it embodied,” Soloveichik concluded.