An American Shabbat

President Trump's call for a national Shabbat ahead of America's 250th anniversary lands at a remarkable moment. This week's Torah portion offers an unexpected lens through which to see it.

Like many American Jews, I was pleased to see President Trump’s recent declaration encouraging all Americans to observe Shabbat on May 15 through 16, ahead of the national rededication on May 17. Acknowledging Jewish Heritage Month, the final sentences of his proclamation were direct and generous.

Presidential Proclamation · May 2025

“I call upon Americans to celebrate the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies. I further call on all Americans to celebrate their faith and freedom throughout this year, during this month, and especially on Shabbat to celebrate our 250th year.”

President Donald J. Trump

Other than feeling good and genuinely seen, especially given the growing permissiveness of antisemitism across America, many Jews like me looked for additional meaning in this proclamation and what it means specifically this week.

This comes alongside the anniversary of President Truman’s recognition of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, eleven minutes after Israel declared independence. Since then, the relationship and alliance between the United States and Israel has only grown stronger, more diversified, and more mutually beneficial.

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This Week’s Torah Portion

Among Jews, it is common to look for significance of an event in the context of the Torah portion read that week. This week we read Bamidbar, the opening of the Book of Numbers (1:1 through 4:20). In Hebrew, Bamidbar means “In the desert” or “In the wilderness.” The English name, Numbers, references its central opening act: a census, a measure of where the people are, taken as a foundation for planning where they are going.

In the middle of the desert, shortly after being liberated from slavery in Egypt, taking the pulse of the nation was a necessary calculation for what would become 40 years of wandering. Today we celebrate the numbers, the 250th anniversary, but like a census, this milestone must also be a springboard from which to consider where America is going.

It is a good beginning to precede the actual anniversary of independence with a nation united in prayer. America cannot thrive as a people of faith without this as a foundation. If we are indeed “one nation, under God,” if we sing “God shed His grace on thee” and declare “In God We Trust,” we cannot take those blessings for granted without assuming reciprocal responsibility. He blesses us, and we can trust in Him, because of our values and actions, not merely our existence.

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President Trump was right to recall Haym Salomon, an early financier of the American Revolution whom he described as “instrumental in the success of our Continental Congress and Founding Fathers.” Salomon rallied support for freedom and, in the end, gave everything to the success of the revolution. Jewish contributions to American life, safety, and prosperity have continued unbroken ever since.

If on this milestone we only count the numbers and fail to take a true census, looking not just at where we are but where we are going together, it will not be enough. The consequence would be like remaining stranded in the desert. Of course, the desert through which the Jewish people migrated for two generations was ultimately a place where they thrived, because of God. That is the model America can follow.

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As we celebrate this national Shabbat together, we must also pause and honestly assess the state of Jews in America, or rather, how America treats the Jews. There is a dangerous and unprecedented permissiveness of antisemitism, from Main Street to Sesame Street, from Broadway to the boardroom.

A Measure of Nations

There is no greater measure of the erosion and eventual destruction of a society than how it treats the Jews. Babylon, Rome, the Ottoman Empire, and the Soviet Union are gone. Countries that have persecuted Jews still exist, but as shadows of what they were or could have become. Egypt, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Spain each had large and thriving Jewish communities. Today, with little exception, none registers as a significant force for good in the world. Only Germany, which has done the most to repent and make restitution for the Holocaust, has truly thrived, though it now faces a corrosive threat from imported Islamic antisemitism.

There are many reasons why President Truman was the first to recognize Israel’s independence in 1948, not least of which because he was a strong Christian who saw the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel as prophetic. He understood, as many have since, that standing with Israel is essential not only because of the promise of blessing in Genesis 12:3, but because failing to do so carries real consequences for nations.

Another relevant lesson from Bamidbar is that while building a nation in the desert, each of the twelve tribes assembled under its own flag, with distinct roles and identities. America is one great nation made up of many distinct tribes. We need not lose our identities. We complement one another, just as the original Jewish tribes did. The answer is not only to spend money protecting Jewish institutions. It is to allow no space for antisemitism at all. Allowing antisemitism to foment and threaten Jews and Jewish institutions is a clear beginning of a nation’s demise, no matter how great that nation is, or once was. President Washington said this plainly.

Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport, 1790

“The United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”

President George Washington

When I read President Trump’s proclamation, I felt as if were sitting in ancient Persia reading the King’s proclamation empowering the Jews in his empire to defend themselves (Esther 8:11). The answer is not for the government to dump millions on defense of Jews, but rather to take active measures to rout out the actual threats both to the Jews and the society at large. That’s also in the Book of Esther, when Haman and his sons were hung (Esther 9:14).

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A Personal Invitation

Since 1776, Americans have observed 13,000 Shabbatot (plural). This one may arguably be the most significant. When I travel in America, I love being invited to observe Shabbat, building bridges among Christians and uniting tribes in our shared Biblical foundation. In the weeks before and after July 4th, I will be doing just that, as I also celebrate American independence. Since I am an Orthodox Jew I do not use electronics on Shabbat, so there are no selfies. I call these experiences a Kodak moment in your heart. I pray that President Trump’s honoring of Shabbat becomes a cornerstone upon which America builds a thriving future: a census well taken, a desert crossed together.