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🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings

This is an archive of public readings selected for Independence Day in the United States, a civic day celebrated annually on July 4th.

Click here to contribute a public reading you have prepared.

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💬 “A Parable Against Persecution,” a pseudepigraphal text written by Benjamin Franklin (1755)

Written by future founding father Benjamin Franklin in 1755, “A Parable Against Persecution,” also known as “the 51st Chapter [of Genesis],” is an example of what is often called ‘pseudo-biblicism,’ a trend from the 1740s to the mid-19th century of writing modern events in the already-archaic style of the King James Bible. More strictly, “A Parable Against Persecution” is an example of pseudepigrapha in that it is meant to be read as part of the book of Genesis, telling a story of Abraham facing a non-coreligionist, acting rashly, and learning a lesson about religious tolerance. Already in 1755 we can see Franklin’s radically liberal religious views. . . .

Categories:

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., the Enlightenment, Hebrew translation, interfaith tolerance, liberty, pseudepigrapha, tolerance and intolerance, tolerance of difference

Contributor(s):

Benjamin Franklin and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation)

💬 The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America (1776) | די דעקלאראציע פון אומאָפּהענגיקײט (Yiddish translation 1954) | הצהרת העצמאות של ארצות־הברית (Hebrew translation 1945)

The text of the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America and its signatories in English, with a Yiddish translation published in 1954. . . .

Categories:

Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week, 🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, American War of Independence, civil declarations and charters, the Enlightenment, United States, United States Declaration of Independence

Contributor(s):

Ḥen Melekh Merkhaviyah (translation/Hebrew), Sarasohn & Son, Publishers (translation/Yiddish), Thomas Jefferson and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 Preamble to the United States Constitution (1787, with translations in Hebrew and Yiddish by Judah David Eisenstein 1891)

The Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America, in English with Hebrew and Yiddish translations. . . .

Categories:

Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings, 🇺🇸 Constitution & Citizenship Day Readings

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., civil declarations and charters, civil rights, Constitution of the United States, Hebrew translation, Yiddish translation

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription), Judah David Eisenstein (translation) and Gouverneur Morris

💬 The Bill of Rights: Amendments Ⅰ through Ⅹ of the Constitution of the United States (1791, with translations in Hebrew and Yiddish by Judah David Eisenstein 1891)

The Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, were first adopted in 1791. They were closely modeled on the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights drafted by George Mason in May 1776. This translation, by Judah David Eisenstein was published in 1891. . . .

Categories:

Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 Juneteenth (Emancipation Day) Readings, 🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings, Addenda, 🇺🇸 Constitution & Citizenship Day Readings

Tags:

18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., civil declarations and charters, civil rights, Constitution of the United States, Hebrew translation, Yiddish translation

Contributor(s):

Judah David Eisenstein (translation), James Madison and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

💬 A New Declaration of Independence, by Emma Goldman (1909)

A New Declaration of Independence by Emma Goldman. . . .

Categories:

Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week, 🌐 International Workers' Day Readings, 🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., political and religious anarchism, civil declarations and charters, internationalism

Contributor(s):

Emma Goldman and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

🆕 💬 The Four Freedoms, as articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (6 January 1941)

The four freedoms as articulated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his address before the 77th Congress of the United States. . . .

Categories:

🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings, Addenda, 🌐 Day of Democracy (September 15th), 🌐 United Nations Day (October 24th)

Tags:

77th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist, Four Freedoms

Contributor(s):

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

💬 קריאות ליום העצמאות האמריקאי | Torah and Haftarah Readings for United States Independence Day, compiled by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

The Fourth of July is a day on which Americans celebrate liberty, equality under heaven, and freedom from tyranny and foreign rule. Thus it is an appropriate day to read Torah. This is a Torah reading (divided into three aliyot) and a Haftarah reading to be recited on the Fourth of July. . . .

Categories:

🇺🇸 Independence Day Readings

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, United States

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

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"Visiting Liberty Bell Center" (credit: National Park Service, license: PD)

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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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