Subscribe To our E-Newsletter George Washington: To the Letter
For the first special exhibition to be presented since moving to
its new location on Independence Mall nearly two years ago, the
National Museum of American Jewish History picked an appropriate
and timely subject. "To Bigotry No sanction: George Washington
and Religious Freedom," which opens to the public on June 29 --
just in time for the July 4th holiday celebrations -- is devoted
to the 1790 letter Washington wrote to Moses Seixas and
Congregation Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Israel, also known as the
Hebrew Congregation of Newport, R.I. It's a letter that the
museum's chief curator and director of exhibitions, Josh
Perelman, says "stands as one of the iconic documents of early
America, from the time when our nation was sorting out what are
the ideals and principles we would live by as a country." The
document, all of 337 words, was a response to Washington's visit
to Rhode Island in recognition of the state's ratification of
the Constitution, as well