A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom

A new history that centers Judaism at the dawn of the United States

Jews played a critical role both in winning the American Revolution—fighting for the Patriot cause from Bunker Hill to Yorktown—and in defining the republic that was created from it. As the most visible non-Christian religion, Judaism was central to the debate over religious freedom in America at a critical juncture. During the war every city with a synagogue fell to the British-with the exception of Philadelphia, birthplace...