This week, America turns 250.

In the Jewish tradition, we have a word for what this moment calls for: hakarat hatov. Literally, recognizing the good. It is one of our most foundational obligations, not simply to feel grateful, but to name what we have been given and to act accordingly.

So let me name it clearly.

The United States of America has been the greatest host nation in the history of the Jewish diaspora. Full stop. The Jewish community in America is the largest outside of Israel. We have built here, schools, synagogues, hospitals, universities, cultural institutions, philanthropic organizations, on a scale and with a freedom that would have been incomprehensible to our great-grandparents. A recent open letter signed by Jewish leaders across the spectrum put it plainly: America, unlike so many others through Jewish history, did not merely tolerate Jewish life, but made possible its flourishing.

That is not a small thing. That is everything.

The American experiment was never perfect. But its founding ideals created something unprecedented in Jewish history. In America, Jews didn’t simply survive. They were free to worship openly, to build institutions, to lead, to innovate, and to help shape the country itself. No ghetto walls. No quotas on what we could become. No government decree about where we could live, what we could study, or whether our children could dream as large as any other American child. Jewish scientists, educators, jurists, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs have helped shape nearly every field of American life. Jewish philanthropists have built hospitals, universities, museums, and social service organizations that serve all Americans, not only the Jewish community. When Jews have thrived in America, America has been the better for it.

Being deeply Jewish has never required being anything less than deeply American. America’s promise of religious liberty has allowed Jewish identity to flourish here in ways few generations before us could have imagined. That combination, full........

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