In the first century of American independence, far-sighted patriots (including George Washington and John Adams) anticipated the way the development of the new nation would change the destiny of the dispersed and downtrodden Jewish people. But even these prophetic voices couldn’t foresee the other side of the bargain – the unexpected tidal wave of Jewish immigration (mostly from the troubled Russian Empire) that indelibly altered the rise of the Republic. This not only brought poetic meaning to the base of the Statue of Liberty (“I lift my lamp beside the golden door”) but also brought fame to a devout Christian thinker and activist who saw himself as “God’s Little Errand Boy” and won praise from his Jewish allies as the true “father of Zionism.”  

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