AMBASSADOR (RET.) YORAM ETTINGER -- The Early Pilgrims explicitly considered themselves as the “Modern Day Chosen People” fleeing the “Modern Day Egypt” – drawing parallels between Pharaoh and King James I – experiencing the “Modern Day Exodus” and the “Modern Day Parting of the Sea,” sailing to the “New Israel”
- Passover (April 1-8, 2026) is a Jewish national liberation holiday, which features Moses and the Exodus. The legacy of Passover deeply impacted the Early Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers, and was essential in shaping of the US culture, in general, and the structure of the US political discourse and political system (e.g., the 3 branches of government and the separation of power), in particular. Contemporaries called George Washington an “American Moses,” while John Adams was referred to as an “American Joshua.”
- The Early Pilgrims explicitly considered themselves as the “Modern Day Chosen People” fleeing the “Modern Day Egypt” – drawing parallels between Pharaoh and King James I – experiencing the “Modern Day Exodus” and the “Modern Day Parting of the Sea,” sailing to the “New Israel,” “New Canaan” and the “Modern Day Promised Land.” In 1776, John Adams wrote to Abigail, his wife and closest advisor, about a sermon that drew a “parallel between the Case of Israel and that of America, and between the conduct of Pharaoh and that of King George III.
- The Early Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers were inspired by British and French philosophers, as well as by the Passover concept of Liberty; hence, the 1751 engraving on the Liberty Bell (“Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” Leviticus 25:10, the essence of the Jubilee, which is the Mosaic role model of liberty) and the 1787 US Constitution and the 1789 Bill of Rights. The Bible was cited more frequently than any European philosopher in founding-era political literature. The Book of Deuteronomy was especially prominent.
