ENGLISH CORNER, CON LINDA JIMÉNEZ – This week’s trivia question: What special characteristics did American Judaism have that made it different from traditional European Judaism?
The United States celebrates Independence Day on July 4, so this week we are offering you a program about the role that Jews played in the Revolutionary War and early years of the country.
Adam Jortner is the Goodwin-Philpott Eminent Professor of Religion in the Department of History. He specializes in the history of religion in the American Revolution and the early nation, with particular emphasis on religious liberty, patriotism and piety, theology, and new religious traditions. His latest book, A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom, is a very detailed and well-documented history of the Jews in early America. In it he relates not only the role of prominent individuals, but also the development of Jewish communities and the birth and unique characteristics of American Judaism itself.
