Newport, Religious Liberty, and the Renewal of America

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, there is one place every American should visit: Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.

Completed in 1763, Touro Synagogue is the oldest surviving synagogue building in the United States and one of the great symbols of the American experiment. It was here that President George Washington responded to the Newport Hebrew Congregation with words that have echoed through American history: the new nation, he wrote, would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

Washington’s letter was revolutionary. In much of the world, Jews had long lived by the permission of rulers. In America, they would live as equal citizens. The promise was not simply freedom from persecution, but the opportunity to flourish together under a shared constitutional order.

That vision deserves renewed attention today.

For too long, Jewish-Christian relations have been defined primarily by dialogue about the past. Those conversations remain essential. But our present moment calls us to something more: enduring friendships rooted in a shared commitment to the future of America. As our nation approaches its semiquincentennial, renewing America will require more than better policies. It will require recovering the moral and spiritual inheritance that made ordered liberty possible in the first place.

The Newport Fellowship, a new initiative of the Tikvah Fund, seeks to cultivate exactly these kinds of friendships. Bringing together emerging Jewish and Christian leaders in education and public policy, the fellowship invites participants to study the Jewish and Western traditions, build lasting relationships, and strengthen the future of Jewish-Christian relations. Through monthly online seminars and an immersive Shabbat retreat in Newport, fellows will encounter the ideas, texts, and institutions that have shaped both biblical faith and the American experiment.

The choice of Newport is no accident.

Perhaps it is time for Touro Synagogue to become something like an American pilgrimage site.

Not because it belongs only to the Jewish people, but because it tells an American story that belongs to all of us. Within its walls, visitors stand where the Founding generation worshipped and reflected on the meaning of liberty. Washington’s famous 1790 letter transformed the relationship between the Jewish people and the American republic, affirming not mere tolerance but equal citizenship. Its twelve columns symbolize the twelve tribes of Israel, its sanctuary faces Jerusalem, and every detail reminds visitors that America’s commitment to religious liberty was nurtured not in spite of biblical faith, but alongside it.

For Protestants, Catholics, and Jews alike, Newport reminds us that the American experiment depended not upon religious uniformity, but upon a shared moral vision rooted in Scripture, the dignity of the human person, and the freedom to worship God according to conscience.

Faithful Jews and Christians will never agree on every theological question, nor should they. But we do share the Hebrew Scriptures, belief in the God of Abraham, a commitment to the sanctity of the human person, and a profound concern for the future of our civilization. Those shared convictions make genuine friendship—and meaningful collaboration—not only possible, but necessary.

In many ways, Newport reminds us that this partnership is not new. It reaches back to the very beginning of the American story.

As our nation enters its next 250 years, there may be no better place to remember who we are—or who we hope to become—than the quiet sanctuary on Touro Street, where Americans are reminded that people of different faiths can stand shoulder to shoulder in freedom, pursuing the common good together.

Applications for the inaugural Newport Fellowship are now open. Emerging Jewish and Christian leaders in education and public policy who are committed to the biblical renewal of America are encouraged to apply. Fellows will participate in online seminars throughout the fall before gathering for a Shabbat retreat at historic Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. There is no cost to participate, and fellows receive a stipend upon successful completion of the program. Learn more and apply at: https://tikvah.org/newport-fellowship/