Do Jews celebrate July 4th?

I once had someone ask me if Jews (American Jews) celebrate America’s Independence Day. Really? Why do you ask? Well…because you are Jewish. Uh-huh… And I just didn’t know if Jews celebrate July 4th. We are Americans. Of course we do.

What a curious question. I don’t really want to go into this person’s psyche and start thinking about anti-Semitism with this one. There could be some – sure. But I think this question is far more a reflection of the individual’s sheer ignorance as to who/what a Jew is. As if it is something stateless, homeless, groundless. Huh…I guess...we kind of: are.

Oh, well, then maybe, yes, I can see where his question was coming from – and after all, for centuries, we were stateless, without control of the ground we stood and slept upon, though we have never really been homeless. We have always had Israel as our home and wherever our hearts have been and as long as we have had one another – we have been able to call anywhere home. Some places have just been more comfortable than others. And interestingly, it has been in that comfort – comfort with acceptance that led to assimilation – when we have actually been most at risk. Think no further than the early Roman Empire, Golden Age of Spain, the flowering of German Jewry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

And dare I say: Our American Experience here in these United States. While there has been discrimination and anti-Semitism throughout our 350 year history on this continent, our acceptance and assimilation have been the most dangerous part of this experience for our future.

So do we, as Jews, celebrate the 4th of July and America’s Independence? Absolutely. And we do so with great joy and pride. Jews have been integral to the American story not only over the last 150 years since Jews started coming to these shores in large numbers – but who is one of our greatest American Jewish heroes? Haym Solomon, a Polish Jew who personally helped to fund the American Revolution by providing loans to the Continental Congress, for which he was never repaid. Those loans helped to procure armaments for the American fighting forces against England. The story of Haym Solomon is one which we repeat in part to make ourselves feel both rooted as Americans but also to remind our neighbors that we deserve to be here. Jews have come to these shores and not only embraced the land but helped shape the myths, the lore, and the way Americans think of this land.

Emma Lazarus, who wrote the New Colossus, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” that sits upon Lady Liberty.

Irving Berlin (born in Russia, Israel Isidore Baline) “God bless America, land that I love, my home sweet home…”

Jack Yellen (born in Poland, Jacob Selig Yellen) “Happy Days are Here Again.”

Ira Gershwin (born Israel Gershowitz) “No they can’t take that away from me.”

Those are the words of people who are grateful for a new beginning and a new home…seeking acceptance and grateful for faces that don’t hate but rather smile back.  

The centuries of being landless and stateless have left an indelible mark on our collective psyche that at times rears its head and causes us to ask: When will we be asked to leave? When will it be our turn to see the horrors of yesteryear? To which I say: May it be never. May it never be our turn and may we always feel comfort and peace and a part of something as great as this American Experience. And yet, as a student of history, I know all too well how the cycles of history do just that: cycle.  

We, as Jews, have dug in deep to this American soil and the political fabric that our country weaves. And that is perhaps why we feel so concerned over any matter that looks to marginalize any one or any thing. So whether it is the environment or gay rights, civil rights or immigration reform, tax policies that hurt the poor or matters related to women’s bodies…Jews are there as organizers, supporters, sign holders, and letter writers. We celebrate the 4th of July because we know how great this country is, how great it can be, and how concerned we are for what it might be if we do not take an active role in making this country great.

Having had the chance to be at the Winston-Salem Dash game last night, dressed in red, white, and blue, drinking a beer, watching baseball, full from a dinner of hamburger and corn on the cob…I could not have been more American. But those are the outside trappings of America. It’s my interest in political activism, my desire to protect the citizens and natural resources of this land, my expression of my religion while being open to others’ expressions – that is what makes me an American. And my pride in this country comes from the fact that a Russian Jew, whose family watched their home burned by Cossacks, could come to this country, create a home, and go on to write a song that would be sung at a baseball game in Winston-Salem in between innings by thousands of people, who sadly probably don’t know the origin of that song, but that he had that chance – that is what makes me proud as an American and as a Jew – and inspires me to protect and create a country where all this is still possible.

A prayer for this night – this weekend of celebrating the birth of these United States of America…from nearly a century ago, penned during the First World War for an army camp show where Irving Berlin was stationed in New York. Supposedly, the show’s producers rejected it as too jingoistic, so Berlin placed it in a trunk of rejected manuscripts. When asked, 20 years later, for a patriotic piece for Kate Smith, who was going to sing something for the 20th anniversary of the Armistice of 1918, Berlin grabbed these words…

God bless America,

Land that I love.

Stand beside her, and guide her

Through the night with a light from above.

From the mountains, to the prairies,

To the oceans, white with foam

God bless America, My home sweet home

God bless America, My home sweet home.