“”I could hardly ac­cuse George Wash­ing­ton of lack­ing vi­sion for the coun­try he helped found. But in 1790, he wrote a let­ter to the Jews of New­port, R.I., in which he of­fered this bless­ing: “May the chil­dren of the stock of Abra­ham who dwell in this land con­tinue to merit and en­joy the good will of the other in­hab­i­tants—while every one shall sit in safety un­der his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” With this friend­ship, Amer­ica has done much bet­ter than that.””