Brooks: America’s 250th Falls on Shabbat. That’s Fitting

By Matt Brooks, National Review
Thursday, July 2, 2026

This week America turns 250, and the day falls on Shabbat. The greatest experiment in human liberty marks its founding anniversary this year on the day the Jewish people have kept holy for millennia. The connection goes far deeper than a coincidence of the calendar.

Two and a half centuries ago, a group of British colonists in North America did something no people had dared before. They declared that legitimate government flows not from a throne but from the consent of the governed, that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with rights that no king may revoke. They staked their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor on the outcome of their rebellion. And from 13 colonies rose a Republic that would become the best hope of free people everywhere.

The source of that freedom is carved into the nation itself. When the Liberty Bell was cast, the words chosen for it came from the book of Leviticus: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” When Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson proposed a seal for the new nation in 1776, both turned to the story of Exodus: a people delivered from bondage into freedom toward the promised land. The men who built this country drew, again and again, on the same ancient source, the Hebrew Bible.

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This article was published on the National Review website on July 3, 2026.