“None to make him afraid”: America’s central promise broken by antisemitism run amok

George Washington, in his inspired and defining 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, assured Jews, now also citizens of this new nation, that they should expect the enjoyment of “the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Some 234 years later, Jews are afraid.