Guest post by Director of Technology Solutions Carla Arton and Economics & Commerce Research Librarian Nicholas Cummins
As the United States marks its 250th anniversary in 2026, Americans have an opportunity to reflect on the many communities whose histories are intertwined with the nation’s story. Jewish Americans have been part of that story since the earliest years of the republic, participating in the American experiment while also bringing with them a distinct tradition of Jewish peoplehood rooted in shared memory, learning, covenant, and communal responsibility.
The phrase “We the People,” which opens the United States Constitution, expresses the idea that the nation is built through the participation of many communities. Jewish tradition speaks in related but distinct terms: of a people linked across generations through faith, texts, law, memory, ritual, and mutual obligation. Over the past 250 years, Jewish Americans have lived in the space between these two frameworks, contributing to American civic life while sustaining connections to Jewish tradition and collective identity.
Foundations of religious freedom
The earliest Jewish communities in what became the United States were small and focused on securing the freedoms promised by the new republic. As Adam Jortner explores in “A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom,” Jewish patriots and community leaders participated in the revolutionary era while also advocating for the religious liberty that would allow Jewish life to flourish in a nation founded on constitutional principles rather than an established religion.
Immigration and adaptation
In the decades that followed, continued waves of immigration reshaped American Jewish life. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, large numbers of Jews arrived from Eastern Europe, many fleeing violence, legal restrictions, and limits on religious practice. These immigrants brought new religious practices, languages, and social traditions, while also seeking stability and freedom in a society that offered greater security.
As Jonathan Sarna explains in “American Judaism: A History,” these communities developed new institutions, including Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements—each with roots in European Jewish thought but reshaped in the American context - as distinct expressions of Jewish religious life in the United States. As Zev Eleff’s “Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History” shows, Orthodox communities in the United States likewise adapted to American conditions while maintaining strong commitments to traditional religious practice.
At the same time, Jewish Americans adapted their cultural practices to fit American society. As Jenna Weissman Joselit explores in “The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950,” this included changes in how holidays were observed and how Jewish identity was expressed in public life. These developments reflected an ongoing balance between maintaining tradition and adapting to new circumstances—an environment that would later give rise to Reconstructionism, a distinctly American approach to Judaism developed by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.
Expanding diversity and civic life
Even as Jewish communities reshaped their internal religious and cultural life, they also engaged with the broader moral and political questions facing the nation. The Civil War era forced Americans to confront the crisis of slavery and the meaning of freedom. Jewish Americans took part in these debates, navigating questions of justice, belonging, and national identity. As Richard Kreitner explores in “Fear No Pharaoh: American Jews, the Civil War, and the Fight to End Slavery,” Jewish communities reflected a wide range of views shaped by region, religious outlook, and personal experience.
At the same time, the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought increasing diversity within American Jewish life. Sephardic Jews, whose heritage traces to Spain and Portugal and later communities in the Ottoman Empire, and Mizrahi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa, many arriving from regions marked by political instability and limits on religious expression, contributed distinct languages, cultural practices, and religious traditions. Aviva Ben-Ur’s “Sephardic Jews in America” and Saba Soomekh’s “Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews in America” demonstrate how these communities built their own institutions while adapting to a Jewish American landscape largely shaped by Ashkenazi norms, rooted in Central and Eastern European traditions.
Together, these developments broadened American Jewish life both internally and externally, shaping a more diverse and engaged community.
War and postwar transformation
The mid-20th century marked a turning point for Jewish life in America. The experience of World War II and the loss of nearly 40% of the world’s Jewish population led to deep reflection on questions of faith, security, and belonging. At the same time, military service and national mobilization opened new paths for Jewish Americans to participate more fully in American society.
In the postwar years, Jewish Americans entered mainstream economic and civic life at a faster pace. As Deborah Dash Moore demonstrates in “GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation,” returning servicemen gained expanded access to higher education, housing, and professional opportunities through the G.I. Bill. This contributed to a period of upward mobility after decades of informal quotas and barriers.
At the same time, the founding of Israel in 1948 created a second center of Jewish life. For many, the United States and Israel together came to represent places of safety, continuity, and renewal after generations shaped by displacement and insecurity. Even as opportunities expanded, a sense of vulnerability persisted into the 1950s and early 1960s, shaped by recent memory and ongoing global uncertainty.
Jewish institutions—including synagogues, community centers, and schools—grew rapidly. As Hasia Diner notes in “The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000,” this period reshaped American Judaism, as participation in American life and commitment to Jewish identity increasingly reinforced one another.
Cultural life and civic engagement
By the 20th century, Jewish immigrants and their descendants had become an important part of American cultural life. Michael Rogin’s “Blackface, White Noise: Jewish Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot” explores how Jewish immigrants helped shape American entertainment while also examining the challenges of race and assimilation. The 2008 PBS documentary “The Jewish Americans,” directed by David Grubin, similarly traces how Jewish communities moved into the American mainstream while maintaining distinct cultural and religious identities, highlighting contributions across the arts, commerce, politics, and public life.
Jewish participation in American public life extended into major reform movements. The 2026 PBS series by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (recently honored by UVA with a Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership,) “Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History” and Marc Schneier’s “Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Jewish Community” trace cooperation between Jewish and Black communities during the Civil Rights Movement.
Jewish Americans also contributed to other movements for equality. Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States, became an important voice for LGBTQ civil rights, as explored in “Harvey Milk: His Lives and Death.” Jewish women played central roles in feminist organizing, as documented in Joyce Antler’s “Jewish Radical Feminism: Voices from the Women’s Liberation Movement.” Tony Michels’s “Jewish Radicals: A Documentary Reader” further highlights Jewish involvement in labor activism and progressive politics.
These histories show that many Jewish Americans connected their own search for security and belonging with broader American efforts to expand freedom and equality.
Confidence and global awareness
In the late 20th century, Jewish American life entered a period of growing confidence and integration. In Richard L. Rubin’s “Jewish in America: Living George Washington’s Promise,” he describes this period as a “golden age,” marked by expanded access to education, professional fields, and public life.
At the same time, global events shaped Jewish identity. The Six-Day War and ongoing tensions in the Middle East made connections to Israel more visible. Questions of identity, responsibility, and peoplehood became more pronounced across the community.
Melvin Urofsky’s “American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust” (1975) provides a foundational historical context, while Theodore Sasson’s “The New American Zionism” (2014) examines how American Jewish engagement with Israel has evolved in recent decades, reflecting changing patterns of identity, affiliation, and connection as broader regional questions continue to shape the context of that relationship.
Global migration also continued, including Jewish immigrants arriving after the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and from the Soviet Union, many leaving due to religious repression and limited opportunities for Jewish life. As Annelise Orleck documents in “The Soviet Jewish Americans,” these experiences reshaped American Jewish identity in lasting ways.
Together, these developments show a period defined by both confidence and complexity.
Contemporary identity and reflection
Today, Jewish writers, religious leaders, and cultural voices continue to explore what Jewish identity means in a diverse and changing society. Memoirs such as Rabbi Angela Buchdahl’s “Heart of a Stranger” and Arthur Hertzberg’s “A Jew in America” reflect on questions of faith, belonging, leadership, and identity in American public life. Sarah Hurwitz’s “As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us” highlights the opportunity for Jewish Americans who feel they lack a strong foundation in their own heritage to reconnect with Jewish tradition and take ownership of their identity in a time of broad access to learning and community.
In recent years, rising antisemitism has shaped public conversation and scholarship. Bari Weiss’s “How to Fight Anti-Semitism” reflects on the persistence of antisemitism in the aftermath of the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue attack in Pittsburgh, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history, which occurred at her family’s synagogue, while “Antisemitic Historical Literature from the American Jewish Historical Society” from Readex provides primary sources that show how antisemitism has appeared and evolved over time.
Works such as Joshua Leifer’s “Tablets Shattered” and Noah Feldman’s “To Be a Jew Today” explore Jewish identity in the 21st century. Writing in the context of a post–October 7th world, they explore questions of faith, peoplehood, and belonging while also engaging with the legacy of the 20th century.
Much like other American communities, Jewish life is shaped by changing economic and political conditions, technological developments, and evolving cultural norms. In this context, daily life reflects both adaptation and continuity, as individuals and communities engage with tradition, learning, and cultural expression in ways that respond to the present while remaining rooted in inherited practices.
Looking back, moving forward
Taken together, these works trace an arc across American history: from the search for religious freedom, to migration and community building, to participation in civic life, and finally to ongoing reflection on identity and belonging.
As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, Jewish Americans continue to take part in the ongoing work of American democracy, even as both Jewish and American identities are being reconsidered in a changing world. Within Judaism, returning to foundational texts and shared memory has long helped communities understand the present and navigate the future. This practice has allowed Jewish life to adapt over time while maintaining a strong sense of continuity.
In a similar way, the American idea of “We the People” has never been fixed. It has expanded and evolved as more communities have participated in shaping the nation’s civic and cultural life. The Jewish American experience, rooted in learning, argument, memory, and communal continuity, offers one example of how identity can be preserved, reinterpreted, and renewed within the broader American experiment. As both Jewish Americans and the United States reflect on their histories and futures, that ongoing conversation will remain part of the larger story of what it means to say: “We the People.”