Wilfred McClay: The Civilizational Role of the Bible in the American Founding

As it happened, Wilfred McClay and Stuart Halpern's The Jewish Roots of American Liberty was released in late September of 2025, just as the American Right was increasingly grappling with some of its own calling into question the role of Judaism and the Jewish people in American history. The controversy reached a fever pitch just weeks later when Tucker Carlson decided to host Nick Fuentes on The Tucker Carlson Show, prompting a series of resignations from the Heritage Foundation's board of governors (after its CEO Kevin Roberts defended Carlson) and provoking anxiety that anti-Semitism was creeping into sections of the American conservative movement.

In their highly engaging book, which consists of twenty-one essays and speeches from various contemporary scholars and figures from American history, McClay and Halpern chronicle both the Hebrew Bible's influence on the United States and the long-standing relationship between the Jewish people and the United States of America. On that latter point, though early colonial America was overwhelmingly Christian (and over ninety percent Protestant), The Jewish Roots of American Liberty contains a 1925 speech by none other than Republican President Calvin Coolidge narrating the participation of many colonial Jews in the non-importation resolution of 1765, as well as the service of Jews such as Major Benjamin Nones in the Continental forces during the American Revolution.

One theme present in both President Coolidge's remarks and throughout other included essays and speeches is the omnipresent idea at the time of the American Founding that the New World was to its settlers as the Promised Land was to the Jews in the Book of Exodus. And as President George Washington made clear in his famous 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, Jews would very much be included in this vision. Unlike in most of Europe, Washington assured this congregation that Jews would not just be tolerated in America but, rather, would be free to practice their faith thanks to their inherent natural rights. President Washington continued:

"May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy 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."

Furthermore, The Jewish Roots of American Liberty makes clear again and again that while the Enlightenment and classical philosophy no doubt influenced the American Founding, the ideas of Christianity and the Old Testament loomed just as large, if not larger. To this point, Leon Kass is quoted: "You don’t get out of Plato and Aristotle an account that would sustain the view of the equal dignity of every human being." That comes from the Bible.