BY ALAN FEILER
JMORE
JANUARY 6, 2026
Thomas Kennedy reportedly never actually met a Jew during his lifetime. But that still didn’t prevent him from doing what he felt was right.
Kennedy – who was born in Paisley, Scotland, in 1776 and died in Hagerstown in 1832 — might be the most important non-Jew in the annals of Maryland Jewry and religious liberty in the Old Line State.
An accomplished poet and co-founder of the Hagerstown Mail newspaper, Kennedy lived most of his adult life in Washington County and represented Hagerstown in the Maryland House of Delegates (and later in the state Senate).
Most famously, he was the leading force behind the landmark “Jew Bill” of 1826, which allowed Jews to hold public office in Maryland.
This week marks the bicentennial of the passage of the “Jew Bill” by the Maryland legislature.
Only approximately 150 Jews lived in Maryland — mostly in Baltimore — during the eight-year period that Kennedy worked tirelessly on behalf of the bill.
Recent Comments