Civic Pilgrimages
Prepared by Tamara Mann Tweel
This itinerary for a 2-day pilgrimage to Gettysburg and Washington D.C. will offer Jewish religious leaders a way to bring faith productively into the American public square for the sake of civic healing and increased civic commitment. It offers an educational opportunity to cultivate a renewed, responsible religious voice in public life through a physical and textual engagement with American history.
The Public Value of Our Private Faith: A Trip Through Lincoln’s America
A Civic Pilgrimage to Gettysburg and D.C.
For Hartman Jewish Civics 2025
DRAFT, June 2025
I: Goals
We seek support for a focused and intimate educational tour designed for Jewish religious leaders, aimed at helping them bring their faith thoughtfully and constructively into the American public square. This tour offers an educational opportunity to cultivate a renewed, responsible religious voice in public life through a physical and textual engagement with American history.
The program will span three days, beginning in Gettysburg with an exploration of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and concluding in Washington, D.C., at the Capitol with Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address. The experience will be guided by three distinguished scholars focusing on Lincoln and the opportunities of faith in American leadership. At the conclusion of the trip, religious leaders will begin preparing sermons, essays, and educational opportunities for their communities.
We will hire an experienced trip leader to ensure smooth logistics and a deeply immersive experience.
II: Draft Itinerary
Day 1: Gettysburg — A New Birth of Freedom
Location: Gettysburg National Military Park
Logistics:
Arrivals coordinated to Harrisburg Airport (closest major airport, ~45 mins to Gettysburg)
Private shuttle from airport to meeting location
Welcome breakfast & distribute reading packets and journals (Digital copies were sent in advance)
Morning Session:
Introductions and Opening Prayers from the 19th century.
Mini-lecture by Lincoln scholar (e.g., Matt Pinsker) on Gettysburg and Lincoln.
Late Morning:
Guided battlefield tour
Walk to Soldiers’ National Cemetery
Scholar-led reading/discussion of the Gettysburg Address on-site
Lunch (With Focussed Discussion)
Location: Local restaurant or catered boxed lunch at the David Wills House
Afternoon Session
Faith and Civic Responsibility – Lessons from Lincoln - with Rabbi/Scholar
Evening
Dinner & Cultural Experience
Day 2: Washington, D.C. — With Malice Toward None
Morning:
Breakfast
Private shuttle from Gettysburg to D.C. (approx. 2 hours)
Late Morning:
Visit Capitol Building, Site of the Second Inaugural Address (with arranged private tour)
Scholar talk: “With Malice Toward None”: Theology of Mercy and National Repair
Lunch:
Location: Capital Jewish Museum
Discussion with multi-faith leaders
Afternoon Session:
Scholar Talk on Religion in the Public Square. (Potential focus on Reinhold Niebuhr, Gandhi, Tolstoy)
Evening:
Evening walk to Lincoln Memorial for personal reflection
Dinner with Jewish community in Washington D.C.
Day 3: Your Faith in America
Morning:
Breakfast
What We Have Learned & What We Can Do
Closing reflections
Private transportation to airport or hotel for departure
Community Teaching Challenge (Months 2–3)
Each participant commits to:
Offer one public-facing educational program (lecture, sermon, adult education class, panel) inspired by the tour
Monthly check ins and opportunities to workshop products.
Sample Readings to include in Reader (Reader will be created with the help of scholars & religious leaders:
Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
Lincoln, Second Inaugural Addres
Thucydides, Pericles’ Funeral Oration
Frederick Douglass, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July
Excerpts from Psalms
Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address
Reinhold Niebuhr
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s Speeches
