Registration
Tuition for this course is $55. Members receive exclusive discounts on our programs and courses. Not a member? Learn more.
Please check your spam folder for your email confirmation. If you have questions, please call (215) 732-1600 ext. 110 or email rsvp@rosenbach.org.
This program is for those 18 and older.
Registration opens for Delancey Society members on Friday, November 14, for Rosenbach members on Friday, November 21, and for the general public on Wednesday, November 26.
Description
Jewish activism before and during the American Revolution helped set the stage for the new United States’ Constitution. Paul Finkelman will discuss this important history of Jewish participation in the American Revolution. Jewish activism helped form the constitutional ideas of religious freedom, including the prohibition of religious tests for public office. And you’ll discover the surprising lack of opposition to Jewish participation in the movement for Independence. A few Jews were high-ranking officers in the army at a time when they were not allowed to be officers in any western European armies, and a fair number of Jews held elected and appointed offices in the new nation. By contrast, they could not vote in England, be military officers, or serve as lawyers. Join us for this look at the history of the American Revolution.
Instructor
Paul Finkelman is the author of Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court, published by Harvard University Press. He received his PhD in American legal history from the University of Chicago and was later a fellow at Harvard Law School. He was a senior fellow in the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Democracy, Citizenship, and the Constitution, Scholar-in-Residence at the National Constitution Center, and a visiting scholar at the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello. He has held endowed chairs at Duke Law School, Albany Law School, and the University of Miami and was the Fulbright Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice at the University of Ottawa. He is currently the Visting Professor of Law at the University of Toledo College of Law. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited his work in seven decisions. Dr. Finkelman has led seminars at the Rosenbach on the constitutional issues of birthright citizenship and on American slavery.