Celebrating America
Thursday, July 2 (17 Tammuz 5786) —Happy 4th of July! Let’s explore the connections between America’s 250th and the Jewish people.
🎖️ About 100 Jews fought in the Revolutionary War. The first Jew to die fighting the first Jew elected to public office in the colonies was Francis Salvador in South Carolina. Haym Salomon, Mordechai Sheftall, and Rabbi Gershom Mendes Seixas also played a role in the revolution.
🇺🇸 July 4th is being celebrated by Jewish communities across the U.S., from Savannah to New York.
🫶🏼 Closer to home, Or Hadash is welcoming founding rabbis Analia Bortz and Mario Karpuj for a Star Spangled Shabbat and cookout.
🌴 Where will July 4th take you? Send your vacation photos to Logan@RoughDraftAtlanta.com.
Thanks for reading!
Y’alla,
Logan
❤️ Therapy that helps you feel seen, supported, and understood—while building practical skills to navigate life with confidence at Intown Psychology. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Is July 4th Jewish?
🎆 From the Georgia coastline to the Hatch Shell in Boston, Jewish communities up and down the East Coast are embracing the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Congregation Mickve Israel was established in Savannah in 1733, a few months after the city was founded. It’s the third-oldest synagogue behind Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI, and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (KKBE) in Charleston, SC.
An exhibit at Mickve Israel tells the story of Jewish settlers and other religious minorities in colonial Savannah as they helped to shape the foundational American ideal of religious liberty.
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✡️ Temple Emanu-El, New York’s largest synagogue, is hosting events through their “Celebrate America at 250” series – including a free lecture series about the Jews of Savannah, GA, Charleston, Newport, and Philadelphia, PA.
Dinosaur Summer. It’s here.
SPONSORED BY THE FERNBANK MUSEUM
🦖 The world’s most famous predator is back—and science is rewriting its story.
At Fernbank’s T. rex: The Ultimate Predator, discover how new research is changing what we know about the “tyrant lizard king,” from feathered ancestors to lightning-fast growth spurts. Explore life-sized models, hands-on interactives, and come face-to-jaws with a full-scale adult T. rex during Dinosaur Summer, now through Sept. 7.
➞ See the king of dinosaurs up close at Fernbank this summer.
Summer in Shanghai
🇨🇳 Y’alla reader Linda Koenig of Decatur recently visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum.
“My husband and I paid a visit to the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum just after our two-week tour of China ended last month. What a fascinating story, told in great detail,” Koenig said.
📷 Koenig photographed Ohel Moshe Synagogue (pictured) and part of the Wall of Names, where 20,000 refugees who came through Shanghai during the 1930s and 1940s were saved from the Nazis.
The Army’s only airborne rabbi finds his congregation wherever he lands
🏃🏼♂️➡️ FORT BRAGG, N.C. — At dawn on Friday, two soldiers showed up for physical training. Their rabbi was already waiting.
Black T-shirts. Gold ‘ARMY’ across the chest. Nothing to set them apart. They blended into the formation — hundreds of soldiers under the pine trees as reveille cut through the morning. The flag rose. They saluted, stretched, climbed ropes, ran into the dark.
The three men walked into a meeting room inside a battalion headquarters, their shirts still damp with sweat. One soldier held out his left arm. The other draped a camouflage tallit over his shoulders. Rabbi Scott Klein (pictured) reached into his backpack, removed a pair of black leather tefillin, and began wrapping them around a soldier’s arm – seven times, the way it’s always done, the leather biting just enough to remind you it’s there.
📰 Read the full story on The Forward.
❤️ Therapy that helps you feel seen, supported, and understood—while building practical skills to navigate life with confidence at Intown Psychology. SPONSOR MESSAGE
Before you go
🕶️ Keller has the scoop on all the Jewish TV coming in July.
It’s shaping up to be a pretty hot July — which means staying home in front of the TV may be just what the doctor ordered. Luckily, there are a lot of fun Jewish stars and shows to watch and schvitz to, from “Love Island USA,” which this season features a Jewish Gal, to Larry David’s “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” where every sketch is full of kvetchy Jewish energy.
📺 Catch up on the shows airing this month.
