Which Matters More: Athens or Jerusalem? | Rabbi Meir Soloveichik
Which was more important to the creation of the West: Athens or Jerusalem? Is America a covenantal nation? Explore these questions and many more in our latest episode of The Larry Arnn Show, where Hillsdale College President Larry P. Arnn interviews Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan. Learn what George Washington thought about religious toleration, what America’s ideals represent, and how we can recover those ideals.
This interview was conducted on February 10, 2026.
Discover more at podcast.hillsdale.edu.
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Timecodes:
0:00 Introduction: Rabbi Soloveichik
1:08 What Does a Rabbi Do? The Oldest Jewish Congregation in America
2:28 George Washington’s Letters to the Jews: Toleration vs. Equality
6:36 Washington’s Biblical Vision: The Exodus & the American Founding
9:18 Rabbi Sacks: America as a Covenantal Nation
11:59 Jews in America vs. Jews in Europe: Full Equality in the Public Square
15:16 The Four Revolutions: Why the American Revolution Succeeded
19:20 The Jews as an Ancient People: Survival & Covenant
22:06 The End of Everything: What Carthage, Rome & Jerusalem Teach Us
27:17 What Is Civilization? Athens, Jerusalem & the Two Pillars of the West
46:27 Jefferson, Adams & Which Foundation Matters Most: Reason or Revelation?
57:09 Aristotle’s Ethics, Wonder & What the Bible Offers That Aristotle Cannot
1:00:51 America at 250: The Covenantal Story & What We Must Not Forget
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Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.
The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.
By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.