Read the Revolution Speaker Series with Adam Jortner

Dr. Adam Jortner will join the Museum to present the first public program in the Museum’s 2026-2027 Read the Revolution Speaker Series with a lecture and discussion on American religious freedom as defined and forged by Jewish faith leaders and communities during the Revolutionary era. In his most recent book, A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution & The Birth of Religious Freedom, Jortner illuminates how Jews contributed to the American cause and helped win the Revolutionary War, while advocating for the extension of liberty and citizenship to all religions in the United States. Following his lecture, Jortner will join Museum President and CEO Dr. R. Scott Stephenson for an interview conversation and Q&A with both onsite and online audiences.   

This special program will be held in the Museum’s third-floor Liberty Hall and will be broadcast live via Zoom. Guests with onsite tickets are invited to arrive early to view The Declaration’s Journey, presented by Griffin Catalyst, from 5:15 p.m. to 6 p.m. Doors open to Liberty Hall at 6 p.m. for onsite guests to see a featured artifact, enjoy refreshments at a cash bar, and purchase signed copies of the featured book.  

This event is presented in partnership with Pennsylvania, The Great American Getaway.

About Adam Jortner

Adam Jortner is a historian at Acadia University and the former Goodwin-Philpott Professor of History at Auburn University, where he taught for fifteen years. He is the author of four books on American religious history and the history of religious liberty, including A Promised Land: Jewish Patriots, the American Revolution, and the Birth of Religious Freedom.  

His other works include The Gods of Prophetstown, No Place for Saints: Mobs & Mormons in Jacksonian America, and Blood from the Sky: Miracles and Politics in the Early American Republic. His essays have appeared in the Washington Post, Current, and The Conversation. In June, The Great Courses released his lecture course Years that Mattered: 1776, a global history of 1776.  

Jortner has written and performed three lecture series exclusively for Audible: American Monsters, Faith and the Founding Fathers, and The Hidden History of the Boston Tea Party. Written for the 250th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Hidden History was a top-ten nonfiction download for January 2024, alongside Britney Spears. He previously worked on the script team for the children’s television show Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?