Thousands gathered on the National Mall Sunday for a day of prayer as part of the celebrations for the nation’s 250th birthday. The event, “Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving,” featured praise-and-worship music and prayers from prominent Christian leaders, as well as one Jewish speaker: Rabbi Meir Soloveichik.
Rabbi Soloveichik recalled to the gathering that Irving Berlin, who as a young Jewish boy fled to the United States after witnessing his village destroyed in a Russian pogrom, as a soldier serving in the U.S. Army during the First World War wrote the lyrics to God Bless America.
“The power and popularity of God Bless America reveals to us that America’s passion for prayer and its love of liberty are always intertwined,” he said.
The connection between faith and freedom is a subject that Soloveichik has explored in his writing as a contributor to Commentary Magazine and First Things, among other publications. Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States, and director of The Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. He previously served as vice chair of the U.S. Commission on
