Independence and Responsibility: A 4th of July Message from Rabbi Kamesar
I write this on the cusp of the 4th of July, the date commemorating the establishment of the United States of America through the ratification by the Continental Congress of the Declaration of Independence, a mere three blocks from Society Hill Synagogue.
It is quite a privilege to house a community in the shadow of this history, and quite a responsibility, too.
Growing up, the 4th of July held a cherished place in my family’s calendar. My paternal grandparents were both first-generation Russian-Jewish immigrants, and for them, for my grandfather especially, the 4th of July was as ritually sacred as any Jewish holiday. We would visit them every summer at their home in La Jolla, California, spending the morning of the 4th at a neighborhood parade, and the evening at their home watching fireworks from their patio.
My grandfather held so much pride in the America in which he had “made it.” He grew up working as a meat packer in the Chicago stockyards with his father, hopping and jumping through multiple business ventures—stock brokerage, banking, hotel management — before he settled in as a mentor and coach to small business CEOs. His story had a Horatio Alger quality to it, and it was, in many ways, a story representative of many American Jews in the 20th century — immigrants or the children of immigrants climbing the material ladder from the working class to a level of material comfort their ancestors could hardly have dreamed of.
This chapter of Jewish history has been referred to as a Golden Age — among the most prosperous, safe, positive experiences the Jewish people has had in its some 3000-year-old history. Not without its challenges: the siren call of success and material comfort in America meant connections to one’s Jewish roots were ever harder to maintain; further, it’s not that there was no antisemitism throughout this period. Still, on the scale of Jewish history, few, if any landing spaces throughout the diaspora have been as hospitable.
Part of this can be traced back to, yes, the 4th of July, 1776. The United States of America embarked on an indefinite experiment to foster a nation built on individual liberties, a government responsive to the will of the people rather than to the hereditary privileges of a king, with checks and balances in place to limit the power emanating from any one branch of government.
Granted, there was a gaping hole in that foundational covenant, with the endorsement of the chattel slavery of Black people lasting for nearly the first century of the republic, followed by the segregation of Jim Crow for nearly another century, and a lasting legacy of racial animus and harmful racially-driven impacts continuing until this day. So the Golden Age did not extend to everyone.
But for American Jews, the American regimes of minority rights, individual liberties, and the separation of church and state have helped to foster a balance allowing American Jews to engage with and immerse in broader society, while also continuing to cultivate a relationship to one’s Jewish roots (recognizing that at both ends of the spectrum some struggled to find a balance, either assimilating and losing touch with one’s roots altogether or resisting all engagement with the broader American population). Many Jews recognized the blessing of this experience building out a substantial track record of seeking to expand these gifts to others, through joining fights for civil rights, immigrants rights, and other causes for social justice.
I am not writing to say — yet — that that Age is jeopardy. But it has never felt more imperiled. (Perhaps a distinction without a difference). From the Right and the Left there is cause for concern, though I must say, Monday’s Supreme Court decision in the case of Trump v. United States has unnerved me more than I thought a Supreme Court decision could.
In this case, about which I’m sure many of you have read, the Supreme Court established near total immunity for presidents from criminal prosecution for crimes they commit while carrying out their official duties as president. (I could get more precise—and convoluted—with the specific ruling, but for all intents and purposes, that’s what it says.) This case turns President Richard Nixon’s infamous statement — “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal” — into a reality.
The logic of this ruling, according to the Supreme Court, is that presidents need broad latitude when carrying out the many deeply challenging and complex duties they have to take care that the laws of the United States be faithfully executed. Fear of potential future prosecution, according to the majority of the Supreme Court, would staunch a president’s ability to lead “vigorously” and “energetically,” thus ill-serving the republic they purport to lead.
The problem with this, of course, is that the opinion does not give much, if any, credence to the other danger—that a president will abuse their ample powers, taking advantage of the wide, if not chasmic, berth the Supreme Court has now given them to illegitimately persecute political opponents, suppress dissent, round up beleaguered minorities for political gain.
None of this is new to the Jewish people. I needn’t cite the specific examples from our history where we’ve encountered these tactics, but rest assured they are ample.
The United States has been home to a Golden Age for the Jewish people because it has, with someexception, largely managed to keep the instincts of autocracy at bay.
Each election presents an opportunity to send a message — and to bring about results that ensure — that we will not stand by idly as threats of autocracy promulgate. Whether or not future administrations follow through on some of the more ominous dangers raised by the dissent in this Supreme Court opinion, the threat of a more autocratic presence in the White House, now with fewer checks to restrain a future president’s worst impulses, is real.
I’m proud of Society Hill Synagogue for organizing a nonpartisan voter turnout initiative to ensure that we all get to the polls. We encourage you to get involved.
I pray that each political party puts forward a candidate who can defeat the trend towards autocracy present in our society, instead further strengthening the individual liberties, democratic mechanisms, and system of checks and balances that have been part of the fabric of our nation and which have contributed to a Golden Age. The Golden Age should be here to stay, available to everyone. That’s our responsibility. Hope isn’t a strategy, but neither is despair. We’ve got five months until the next election. That’s enough time — if we’re deliberate — to invest in the values we care about.
I’ll be thinking about my grandparents this 4th of July; thinking about their relationship to the country they made their way in. Like Judaism, it’s a legacy they’ve handed down to us. I pray for our ability to foster it.
