The 250th anniversary of American independence is an opportunity to restore pride in America’s past and confidence in its future. Restoring that pride and confidence is critical to our future.

For many years, I spoke in my Shul on the Shabbat closest to July 4. My theme was how America provided more opportunity and freedom for us to live and prosper as proud Jews and loyal Americans than any country in the history of the Diaspora.

Those words were true when I said them. But whether they are still true today or will continue to be true in the future is highly questionable.

For the first time in history, more Americans sympathize with the Palestinians than with Israel. The Mayor of the city with the largest Jewish population in the world was cheered as he proclaimed that the largest source of our problems is the dark money from the “monsters” at AIPAC. The three candidates he supported won clear victories over respected opponents. Jews who represent 10% of the city’s population are victims of 60% of the hate crimes. Anti-Semitism is rampant in the media and the press. The President who was proclaimed the best friend Israel ever had has thrown Israel under the bus, providing Iran with billions of dollars as part of a deal that is far worse than the one Barack Obama signed in 2015. Until recently, support for Israel was the only issue on which Democrats and Republicans agreed. Now, calls for ending US support of Israel are gaining bipartisan support.

It has been consistently shown that there is a clear correlation between people’s perception of American history and their opinions about Jews and Israel. People who believe that the United States has provided more freedom and opportunity for more people than any country in the history of the world are likely to admire Israel as a country that rose from the ashes of the Holocaust to build a free, prosperous, and powerful society based on the timeless values of Jewish heritage. Those who believe that America was built by racist, white colonialist settlers who stole the land of the Native Americans and enslaved the Africans are likely to view Israel as a country of racist, white, colonialist settlers who stole the land and are committing “genocide” against the Palestinians.

The view of America as a racist country has always been out there. Many of the people who promoted it were Jews. But the view of America as a beacon of liberty held greater sway. Slavery was seen not as the essence of America’s story but as a violation of our ideals. History told of how America moved towards more freedom and more opportunity for more people. This was expressed by Martin Luther King when he said “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.”

In this historiography, the Jew, who fled from the pogroms, lived in the tenements, worked in........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)