January 5: The Jew Bill

The State of Maryland extended to Jews the right to hold public office on this date in 1826 with passage of the Jew Bill (“An Act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion the same rights and privileges that are enjoyed by Christians”), which had first been proposed in 1818 but was repeatedly defeated in the legislature. The bill, which still required officeholders to profess belief in a “future state of rewards and punishments,” was championed by legislator Thomas Kennedy, who had never met a Jew (there were only 150 in the state at the time). Today, several states still have language in their constitutions requiring particular religious beliefs of office-holders.

“This bill ought to pass even if it was only to do justice to the long oppressed Hebrew; but it is not for their benefit alone; it is establishing a general principle ... approved by the patriots of the revolution, sanctioned by wisdom and virtue and tested by experience ... Let us pass this bill ... even on a dying pillow it will comfort us to think that we have done at least one good act in our lives ... establishing religious freedom in Maryland ...” —Thomas Kennedy