Massachusetts Historical Society Induction

Today, I was honored to be elected as a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, joining such past fellows as John Adams, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John F. Kennedy. I am humbled to be included among so many great historians, scholars, and leaders who are and have been Fellows of the Massachusetts Historical Society since 1791. I am proud to have told a little of the story of the Jews in America. History and biography are so important in giving us perspective on our place in the cosmos and the human condition here on earth. I look forward to participating in the important work of the society. It makes me even happier to be elected at the same time as my mentor, Professor Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University, the prime historian today of American Judaism, and to be sponsored for election by Fellow Daniel Coquillette, eminent historian, professor at Harvard University, and former dean of Boston College Law School.