🆕 Invocation for the 78th Annual Reading of President George Washington’s letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, by Rabbi Stephen Belsky

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20 August 2025 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

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Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty, 🇺🇸 United States of America

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21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, civic prayers, English vernacular prayer, George Washington, State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

This invocation was given at the 78th annual George Washington Letter Reading Event, August 17, 2025 (23 Av, 5785), held by the Touro Synagogue Foundation to celebrate the famous 1790 letter exchange between the Jewish community of Newport, Rhode Island (represented by warden Moses Seixas) and first president of the United States, George Washington. Washington’s response to Seixas’s letter, in which he quotes some of his most iconic phrasings, is one of the first official statements by the US government on the value of religious freedom. This Letter Reading Event was held in the Old Colony House (where the Jewish community’s letter was probably presented to President Washington), rather than in the Touro Synagogue, due to Congregation Shearith Israel in New York’s barring of the Touro Synagogue Foundation from access to the building.

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	Although the Jewish community had shrunk since the Revolutionary War, when President Washington sent his letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, there were still Jews worshipping at the Touro Synagogue who either themselves, or their close relatives, or friends they had known, were refugees who had escaped the Inquísitory regimes of Spain, Portugal, and their colonies, and who had crossed the sea like their Scriptural ancestors, in search of freedom.
	We find in Sefardic prayerbooks of this era, a special Traveler’s Prayer for sea journeys, that invoked the merit and memory of our Ancestors and our Prophets and כל הצדיקים…שהיו בכל דור all the righteous of all generations, beseeching God to protect the ship, its passengers and crew, from the dangers of the great and restless waters, and bring them with a fair wind safely, to their destination.
	In that spirit, following in their wake, I pray, God of our Ancestors, Molder of Creation, Father of Humanity, O God who grants success to leaders and responsibility to citizens – יהי רצון מלפניך May it be Your will, to bless the memory of Moses Seixas and of George Washington, along with the founders of Rhode Island, and the authors of the Flushing Remonstrance, and the drafters of the Bill of Rights, and of all those up and down these shores, near and far – Native and Newcomer, settler and slave – who fought and taught and lived and died setting the course of our country towards the freedoms we hold dear; especially the freedom to worship You as we know You, without compulsion or fear of control.
	Protect their dream and soothe their nightmares; let their holy vision flourish and heal the echoes of their sins.
	And when this world rages with hate like the wild waves of a stormy sea, rescue us and our freedoms, from the tempest and the flood.
	In the merit of President Washington and Moses Seixas, and of all those throughout the generations who have championed civil and religious liberty, please, God, uproot and destroy all cruelty and hatred from upon us, from among us, from between us, and from within us; and spread the sheltering tabernacle of peace over this, our common home, and over our homeland across the sea, and over all the Earth, with all humanity dwelling in brotherhood and tranquility.
	And may the spirit of civic unity – of mutual respect, of neighborly concern, and of loving fellow-citizenship – fill our sails and illuminate our souls, as we navigate treacherous waters, trusting in Your loyal kindness.
	May this be God’s will, and let us say, אמן.

For a public reading that provides the historical frame story around this letter, find the Megillat Washiŋton.

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“Invocation for the 78th Annual Reading of President George Washington’s letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, by Rabbi Stephen Belsky” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Stephen Belsky

A native of Brooklyn, New York, Stephen Belsky is a graduate of the Yeshiva of Flatbush, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and the Educators Program of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received semikha at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and while studying there held internships at Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford, Connecticut, and the International Rabbinic Fellowship. Before starting semikha, Stephen taught at the Schechter high school in Teaneck, New Jersey, and after ordination, he returned to education, teaching Jewish Studies in the middle and high school divisions of Yeshivat Akiva in Southfield, Michigan. In addition to classroom teaching, Stephen has taught and lectured both in his local community and in synagogues across the eastern United States.

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78th Annual George Washington Letter Reading (17 August 2025, Newport, Rhode Island)

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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