Every summer, the TSF partners with Congregation Jeshuat Israel to host The George Washington Letter Celebration, an event honoring our nation’s heritage of religious freedom. Written during his first visit to Rhode Island as President of the United States, George Washington’s 1790 letter to “To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island,” affirmed the new national government’s absolute commitment to the free exercise of religion, which he regarded as an “inherent natural right.” The federal government, he stated, “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The annual event has a long tradition of distinguished keynote speakers, including Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagan and Frances Malino, the Sophia Moses Robison Professor Emerita of Jewish Studies and History, Wellesley College. The event also includes the presentation of the Judge Alexander George Teitz Award and the Aaron and Rita Slom Scholarship for Freedom and Diversity.

Please see our Facebook page to view the August 15 George Washington Letter Reading.