A common thread of faith and freedom
As America marks its 250th year, the shared values that bind the US and Israel are as vital as ever
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of 56 extraordinary patriots gathered in Philadelphia and did something the world had never seen: they risked their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to declare that freedom is not a gift from government – it is a birthright from God.
In the immortal Declaration of Independence, our founders proclaimed the then-radical idea “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Those words didn’t just launch a nation. They launched a revolution of the human spirit that is still reverberating across the globe. As President Donald Trump has said, “With a single sheet of parchment and 56 signatures, America began the greatest political journey in human history.”
Standing here in Israel, I am reminded every day that America’s founding ideals and the Jewish people’s ancient values are not parallel lines – they are intertwined. We must recognize that America’s founding ideals did not emerge from thin air. Rather, they derive their wisdom from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as revealed to man in the Hebrew
Bible, the moral architecture of the Jewish people.
The founders were, after all, steeped in Scripture. They drew from the Exodus story a model of liberation from tyranny. They borrowed from the Hebrew concept of justice as described in the Laws of Moses – the conviction that law must be grounded in a higher moral order.
In George Washington’s famous 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, he affirmed that the United States would give “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance” – a promise rooted in the same Judeo-Christian heritage that shaped the Declaration of Independence
itself.
As we mark America’s 250th birthday, I find myself reflecting on what it means to represent the United States in Israel – a nation that understands, perhaps better than any other, what it costs to be free and what it means to fight for survival. The American and Israeli stories are different in some ways, but we share a common thread: the unshakeable conviction that liberty is worth defending, and that a people rooted in faith and purpose can accomplish the impossible.
This milestone also reminds us that the American experiment – our pursuit of a more perfect union – is a living story, continually shaped by the hard work of generations of Americans at home and abroad. It is shaped by diplomats and soldiers, by teachers and entrepreneurs, by industrious souls who crossed oceans for a chance at something better. America’s story is never finished. That is its genius.
Under President Trump’s vision, we are forging new partnerships, championing innovation, and defining a new era of American power that will carry us forward for the next 250 years. The United States remains what it has always been: a trusted, dynamic partner, ready to lead – not from a place of nostalgia, but from a place of renewed confidence and purpose.
These 250 years comprise the story of our nation – our glorious heritage and our proud destiny. The values enshrined in our declaration are as urgent today as they were in 1776. So we invite you to celebrate with us – not merely as observers of history, but as participants in it. Attend a US Embassy event near you, share what freedom means to you, and join Americans around the world in recommitting to the ideals that have guided us for two and a half centuries. If history is any guide, the next 250 years will carry us to achievements we cannot yet imagine.
Happy 250th Birthday, America. The best is yet to come.