Contributed
Chabad has announced a four-session course, Sinai and Civics: How Jewish Values Helped Shape America’s Founding Ideals, beginning the end of June, 2026. The program is offered through the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI).
On July 4, 2026, the United States turns 250. Most Americans will celebrate. Fewer will know that when Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams were appointed to design the first national seal in 1776, they proposed an image of Moses parting the Red Sea, with the motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to G-d.” They wanted the face of the new nation to be a scene from Exodus.
Sinai and Civics follows that thread. The four-session course traces the influence of the Hebrew Bible on America’s founding (from the Mayflower Compact to the Declaration of Independence to the structure of the Constitution) and asks what that history means for Jewish Americans today.
“Most people have no idea how directly the founders drew on the Jewish tradition,” says Rabbi Yanky Majesky. “They were reading it, quoting it and using it as a model for the kind of country they wanted to build. In this course, we’ll look at the primary sources together, and it’s a lot more specific than people expect.”
“The great American historian Perry Miller once said that the Bible was ‘the air people breathed’ in early American culture,” says Professor Jonathan D. Sarna, PhD, of Brandeis University. “Sinai and Civics underscores the profound interrelationship between Judaism and America’s founding ideals.”
Rabbi Majesky says it’s an eye-opening realization, especially for American Jews at a time of rising uncertainty. “Once you understand how the founders thought,” he says, “you stop asking whether you belong here. The answer becomes obvious.”
The course is open to participants of all backgrounds. No prior knowledge of Jewish studies is required.
Sinai and Civics is (Continued Legal Education) CLE-accredited for attorneys in most U.S. states.
The course will be offered in-person as well as over Zoom. Sign in information will be provided upon enrollment.
Interested students may visit www.myJLI.com to find the closest class, register, and access other course-related information.
