<head><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style></head><body><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif"><br></font></font></font><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif"><br></font></font></font><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif"><br></font></font></font><style>body{font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:#ffffff;color:black;}p{margin:0px;}</style><font color="#000000"><font size="2"><font face="arial,sans-serif">Cambridge Forum<br> 3 Church Street ● Cambridge, MA 02138<br>617-495-2727<br>email: director@cambridgeforum.org<br>cambridgeforum.org<br><br><font size="4"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Release </span></font> May 29, 2012<br><br><font size="3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Curious History of Religious Tolerance in America: A Cambridge Forum Discussion:</span></font><br><br>On <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wednesday June 13, 2012</span>, Cambridge Forum hosts <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Widmer</span>, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, discussing “A Test Case for America: Washington, Longfellow, and the Jewish Community at Newport, Rhode Island.” The forum takes place at <span style="font-weight: bold;">7:00 pm at the First Parish in Cambridge, 3 Church Street in Harvard Square.</span><br><br>Widmer reviews the history of Washington’s seminal communication on religious freedom and offers his reflections on how well the country has subsequently lived up to this promise. In August 1790, George Washington made a ceremonial visit to Newport, Rhode Island. Moses Seixas, the warden of Congregation Kahal Kadosh Yeshuat Israel (now known as the Touro Synagogue) in Newport welcomed him with a letter. Washington’s response promised continued security to the Jewish community under the government of the new Republic:<br><br> For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens.<br><br>Washington’s letter is seen as a foundation stone of American religious liberty and the principle of separation between church and state. Each year, the Touro Synagogue re-reads it in a public ceremony. <br><br>How has the subsequent history of religious tolerance in the United States lived up to Washington’s promise? Where do today’s concerns about the location of the proposed Islamic Center in lower Manhattan or police infiltration of Muslim student groups fit into this “curious history?” Which side in the current debate about birth control and Catholic teaching is truly defending the First Amendment freedom of religion?<br><br><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Widmer</span> is a historian with background in the world of academia, politics, and rock and roll. Currently the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, he is the author of <span style="font-style: italic;">Martin Van Buren</span> in The American Presidents Series and of <span style="font-style: italic;">Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City</span>. Recently he edited <span style="font-style: italic;">American Speeches: Political Oratory from Patrick Henry to Barack Obama</span> for the Library of America. He was director of speechwriting at the National Security Council and a senior advisor to President Clinton from 1997 to 2001. Widmer was also the founder and first director of the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College. Even the rock band for which he was a lead singer and guitarist, the Upper Crust, was historical in nature: a group of powdered-wig aristocrats crowing, “Let them eat rock!” <br><br><span style="font-style: italic;">Co-sponsored by the National Park Service, Longfellow House–Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site; Friends of the Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters; the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati; and by Ann Daily. This program honors Frances Ackerly a former member of the Board of Cambridge Forum and the Friends of the Longfellow House.</span><br><br>Cambridge Forum is recorded and edited for public radio broadcast. Edited CDs are available to the public by contacting 617-495-2727. Select forums can be viewed in their entirety on demand by visiting our website at cambridgeforum.org and clicking on the Forum Network at WGBH.<br></font></font></font></body><pre>
Cambridge Forum
3 Church Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: 617-495-2727
email: mailto:director@cambridgeforum.org
website: http://www.cambridgeforum.org
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