“The Jewish Americans” will surprise many viewers. When they think about Jews, they think about the Holocaust and the State of Israel. They imagine that Jews are pretty much alike, and that Jewish life on these shores is a recent innovation. Earlier, they assume, America was religiously Christian.

One of the many virtues of PBS’s new series is that it shatters these myths. Viewers will learn that Jews have been part of this country since the 17th century. Many of the country’s Founding Fathers had encounters with Jews, and Jews played a role in early nineteenth century battles for religious liberty, in the Civil War, and in the development of the American West.

Jews are not now and never have been a monolithic community in the United States. There have long been many types of Jews and many ways of being Jewish.

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The battle for a Pagan chaplain recalls an earlier effort to make the chaplaincy more inclusive. The story dates back to 1861, during the early months of the Civil War.

The military chaplaincy law, passed in that year, stipulated that a regimental chaplain be a “regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination.” Interestingly, the parallel Confederate law was more inclusive, requiring simply that the chaplain be a “minister of religion.”

The chaplaincy bill effectively barred Jewish chaplains from the field in the North – this in a war where some 8,000-10,000 Jews were fighting in the field. At least two elected Jewish chaplains were rejected on account of the discriminatory law, placing Jewish soldiers at a great disadvantage to Christian ones, and in effect rendering the Jewish faith illegitimate.

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The concept of “salvation” looms less large in Judaism than in Christianity. Indeed, there is no article on “salvation” in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica.

There is an article on “redemption,” which embraces “salvation,” but the article underscores a vital point that distinguishes the Jewish perspective from its Christian counterpart:

The sages know nothing of a miraculous redemption of the soul by external means. There is no failing in man, whether collectively or as an individual, which requires special divine intervention and which cannot be remedied, with the guidance of the Torah, by man himself.

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“Who is rich?” Rabbi Ben Zoma declares in the Jewish Ethics of the Fathers. “He who is content with his portion.”

I feel particularly content – indeed blessed and thrilled -- with my own portion, for this summer marks eight years since I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. My chances of survival, according to the on-line statistics back then, were but one in five.

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Jerry Falwell played a huge role in the transformation of Evangelical –Jewish relations in the United States.

Prior to World War II, many evangelical ministers were known for their outspoken opposition to Jews and Judaism. They stood among the leading fomenters of antisemitism in the United States. To them, Jews constituted a threat not only to the United States but to the world.

Jerry Falwell, by contrast, forged cordial alliances with Jews, strongly supported the State of Israel, and worked to liberate Jews persecuted in the Soviet Union.

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The great biblical prophets were frequently critical of the people of Israel and the leadership of Israel. Yet they were faithful and loyal Jews. For this reason, invariably, they couched their criticisms in love. They chastised Israel, much as a parent might chastise an errant child, but they did so with great sadness and always in the hope that Israel would eventually repent.

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In an era when Americans ask presidential candidates whether they prefer “boxers or briefs,” a candidate’s personal religious views should surely not be off-limits to questioners.

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Judaism, the Jewish philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz once observed, “recognizes war as a fact of human life because mankind, to which the Jewish people belongs, exists in an imperfect world.”

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Seattle-Tacoma airport, this year, was decorated with nine Christmas trees. Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky, who represents the Jewish organization Chabad-Lubavitch, protested. Since the Christmas tree is not a Jewish symbol, he sought to add a Chanukah menorah to the display. Instead, officials removed the Christmas trees from the airport, leaving behind no holiday decorations whatsoever.

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Years ago, my wife and I were invited to a Chanukah party at the home of an intermarried Jew. The wife, who was Jewish, proudly lit the Chanukah candles near the window in the dining room, reciting the traditional blessings.

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“How can a good Jew celebrate Thanksgiving?” a fervently Orthodox Jew asked me some years ago. Thanksgiving, he pointed out, is not mentioned in the Bible, the Talmud, or any of the Codes of Jewish Law, and had its origins among Christian Pilgrims in New England.

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