Excerpt:
As part of America's semiquincentennial, President Trump has formally encouraged American Jews to take a national Sabbath this weekend. This presidential proclamation recognizes the longstanding and deeply valued Jewish presence in America.
Mr. Trump isn't the first president to acknowledge America's Jewish community. In his letter to the Jews of Newport, George Washington welcomed "the children of the stock of Abraham," and gave them a biblically rooted assurance that "everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid." He also declared the U.S. "gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance."
More than 200 years after Washington's letter, and after 2½ centuries in this country, do American Jews need a national Sabbath?