Where are the Chaplain Moseleys?

From the days of Abraham, Jews have been "othered" in the societies in which they live.Jews were others in the pagan societies of Egypt, the Assyrian Empire, the Babylonian Empire, the Persian Empire and the Roman Empire.Jews were others under Muslim rule in the Ottoman Empire, and Jews were others in Christian Europe.Jews were "othered" for the sole reason of being Jews.Being "othered" has ranged from benevolent tolerance to violent persecution and expulsion.For millennia, Jews were denied the status equivalent to that of societies' majority faith citizens, whatever the majority faith.This paradigm continues today in much of the world, even in liberal democracies in countries that have state religions.However, even in many countries that do not endorse a specific religion, religious discrimination continues.But the United States of America is supposed to be different.In his famous letter of 1790 to Moses Seixas, the leader of the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, George Washington, our first president-and, of course, the first commander-in-chief of the United States Army-wrote:The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy-a policy worthy of imitation.All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.1