(Newspaper). The United States Chronicle. Vol. VII, no. 352.

<<Original newspaper report containing the Moses Seixas - George Washington “to bigotry no sanction” letters>>. Issued following President George Washington’s visit to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport - known today as the Touro Synagogue the oldest Synagogue building extant in North America. This visit by Washington to Rhode Island (soon after becoming the last state to ratify) along with members of his administration, including Thomas Jefferson, ranks among the seminal episodes in the history of American Jewish religious liberty. The President was met at the Newport Synagogue by Moses Seixas, one of the leading officials of this bustling port city’s Jewish community, who gave an eloquent welcome speech, expressing the Jewish community’s satisfaction with democracy, and their desire for a life in America free from the shackles of old-world prejudice. After his departure, George Washington wrote a letter to the Jews of Newport, which contained his famous passage addressing bigotry. <<This letter is considered a fundamental document establishing Washington’s belief in the separation of church and state.>> The United States Chronicle was printed in Touro Synagogue’s home-state of Rhode Island and here contains the full text of both Seixas’ original address to Washington, as well as the President’s famous response: “For happily the government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support … May the children of the stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants. While every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Although the Address to President Washington by Seixas, was written as an expression of welcome, it was also to voice the concerns of America’s Jewish citizenry that their rights be safeguarded. The pivotal phrase in his address: “A government which to bigotry gives no sanction, to persecution no assistance” – was reiterated by Washington himself in his reply to the congregation (see above). Moses Seixas (1744-1809) had a long history as a revolutionary patriot, he remained in Newport after it was occupied by the British during the war and signed a document during the occupation pledging loyalty to the patriotic cause. Additionally, his brother Rabbi Gershon Mendes Seixas, minister of New York’s Shearith Israel Congregation and known as the “patriot rabbi” was one of fourteen clerygymen officiating at Washington’s 1789 Presidential inauguration. See JE, Vol. XI, p. 161; T. Lewis, History of Touro Synagogue, Bulletin of the Newport Historical Society, No. 159 (Summer 1975), Vol. 48, Part 3, pp. 288, 292-94. <<These letters are of fundamental importance demonstrating that the Founding Father of the united states had sanctioned in full the inclusion of Jews into the new American nation.>>