Rabbi Dr. Stuart Halpern, MBA serves as the senior advisor to the provost at Yeshiva University and the deputy director and chief strategy officer of its Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought. He has edited nineteen books, including Jewish Roots of American Liberty (with Wilfred McClay), Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: The Hebrew Bible in the United States (with Meir Soloveichik), Esther in America, and The Promise of Liberty: A Passover Haggada. He has lectured about the Hebrew Bible’s impact on the United States across the globe, and his essays on the topic have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Tablet, Jewish Review of Books, First Things, and The Jerusalem Post.
The Hebrew Bible’s Ancient Avengers
Long before Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Batman and the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Hebrew Bible’s Ancient Avengers were inspiring Americans. The figures of Samson, Esther, Elijah, David, and Daniel served as spiritual sustenance to freedom fighters, politicians, and pundits striving to see the United States live up to its founding ideals. In this lecture, we will examine how these Jewish heroes shaped American history from the founding era to today
Esther in America
The powerful story of the Persian Jewish queen’s ongoing role in the American story
David, King of America?
How the shepherd-turned monarch left a mighty imprint on American political history
“Moses Was the Washington of Israel” – How the Exodus Inspires America
Israel’s liberation from tyrannical Egypt has been the founding and ongoing unifying story of the United States. In this lecture, we will trace the timeless tale’s indelible impact.
George Washington’s Favorite Biblical Verse
America’s first president often turned to a biblical vision of an ancient Jewish city to inform his dreams for the country. What verse, and why, served to articulate Washington’s moral aspiration for the United States?
The Presidential Traditions of Hanukkah
How Did Judaism’s Festival of Lights Enlighten American History? In this lecture, we trace the surprising and inspiring connections.
1 Jul 26
On March 25, 2026, Dr. Ruth Wisse delivered the Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities. Being invited to offer this address is the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Her talk, “A Message from the Blue and White in the Red, White, and Blue,” offered […]
14 May 26
Inscribed on the tombstone of William Bradford in Plymouth, Massachusetts is a Hebrew phrase, “God is the help of my life.” Bradford was one of the most impactful Pilgrim settlers, serving as Governor of the Plymouth Colony for roughly thirty years, as well as a commissioner and president of the United Colonies of New England, […]
22 Apr 26
America’s sense of itself as a moral echo of biblical Israel enabled the rebirth of the ancient Jewish homeland in the modern era.
9 Feb 26
While Presidents’ Day officially celebrates George Washington’s birthday, it’s the perfect occasion to note the impact on the American story of another seminal figure—Moses, who has served as an inspiration to Commanders in Chief since our country’s earliest days. The Founders and the Exodus from England On May 17, 1776, on which the Continental Congress […]
29 Jan 26
Exodus 15 and the American Battlefront On December 12, 1787, at the state of Pennsylvania’s convention to ratify the Constitution, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, asserted that the birth of the United States echoed ancient Israel’s exodus from Egypt. The meeting’s minutes record that “he as much believed the hand […]
11 Dec 25
“Her price was indeed above rubies,” is how John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth president, mourned his mother, Abigail (1744–1818) in his diary upon her death. His reference to the description of the “Woman of Valor” in Proverbs 31:10 was apt. After all, Abigail’s life had been steeped in Scripture. The future second First Lady was […]
6 Nov 25
The Core of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Approach to Life and Government In 1899, New York Governor Teddy Roosevelt offered advice for the students at Mount Pleasant Military Academy. The legendary leader of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, known as the Rough Riders, drew from a rather surprising source—the revelation at the foot of […]
1 Jul 25
While this July 4th, most Americans are, amidst the barbecues and jumps in the pool, unlikely to pop open a Bible and start reading the book of Joshua, they might at least take a moment during the festivities to consider how the book’s eponymous Israelite hero helped shape the United States from the colonial period […]
16 May 25
Ezra Stiles was one of America’s first great college presidents. The seventh leader of Yale University and a founder of Brown, born in 1727, was also a minister, theologian, author and amateur scientist who corresponded with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson about scientific discoveries. And he possessed a profound affinity for the Hebrew Bible. Stiles […]
16 Mar 25
On July 5, 1852, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey ascended to the podium at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York. The source of his moral argument for liberty that day would be drawn from the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins this year on the evening of April 22. Frederick’s Path to Deliverance Born into slavery […]
24 Jan 25
The Psalmist, monarchist that he was, could never have imagined his words would close the administration of an elected president. Yet, in the post on X now pinned at the top of the archived account of former president Biden, one reads: Scripture says: “I have been young and now I’m old yet I have never seen the […]
