Table of Contents
Transcripts of the Letters
SETTING THE SCENE
The Origins of American Religious Liberty by Gordon S. Wood
“The World Turned Upside Down”: Roger Williams’s Revolutionary Vision of Religious Freedom by John M. Barry
John Clarke, the Rhode Island Charter (1663), and Religious Liberty in America by James Wermuth
America’s White Slaves by Eve LaPlante
EXPLORING THE LETTERS
George Washington’s Correspondence with the Jews of Newport by Jonathan D. Sarna
George Washington and Religion by Dan Eshet and Michael Feldberg
Creating an American Metaphor for American Liberty: Washington’s Vine and Fig Tree by Daniel L. Dreisbach
The Evolution of Meaning by Kwame Anthony Appiah
COMPARATIVE TEXT
Compelle Intrare (Force Them to Conform) by Olivier Roy
Of Vines, Fig Trees, and the Ashes of Bigotry by Zvi Ben-Dor Benite
Making Room for All the All-Americans by Lee A. Daniels
From Toleration to Equality: George Washington’s Letter in Comparative Context by David N. Myers
Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom by Irvin Ungar
THE LETTER AND THE LAW
Welcome to America: Get Used to Disagreements! by Martha L. Minow
Between Toleration and Rights: Echoes of the George Washington Letter
in Contemporary Legal Debates by Robert A. Burt
Reflections on George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Madison’s Influence on George Washington’s View of Toleration by Martha C. Nussbaum
THE LETTER IN OUR TIME
The Most American Thing You Can Do by Eboo Patel
When the Buddha Went Down to Memphis by David Waters
The Impact of Leadership on Prejudice by Jason Marsh and Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
Religious Liberty after September 11 by Eli N. Evans
EDUCATION
Breaking Down Barriers: Education in a Globalized World by Adam Strom
“All Possess Alike Liberty of Conscience”: The Vision of Roger Williams by Charles C. Haynes
“If I Am Not for Myself”: Speaking Out Against Bigotry by Phyllis Goldstein
Making Democracy Work: A Civic Lesson for the Twenty-First Century by Fernando Reimers
Liberty of Conscience and Universal Toleration in France by Jean-Louis Auduc
Understanding a Core Ideal: The Meaning of Religious Freedom forTwenty-First-Century American Students by James W. Fraser
POSTSCRIPT
A Rebuke to Bigotry by John Sexton