BY
KENT COUNTY NEWS
MARCH 28, 2026
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the United States. But it also marks another important anniversary, at least for Maryland and its Jewish citizens: the 200th anniversary of “The Jew Bill” of 1826 (officially, “An act to extend to the sect of people professing the Jewish religion the same rights and privileges enjoyed by Christians.”).
The bill was enacted 50 years after the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that “all men are created equal” and after the Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion.
The implementation of many of these constitutional rights, however, such as the right to vote, was — and remains — primarily the responsibility of the states. Maryland, like several others, continued earlier practices that were nondemocratic, such as slavery, and required an oath as a Christian for those elected or appointed to public office, effectively shutting Jews out of the political process.
Efforts to undo such official anti-Jewish practices, whether deliberate or inadvertent, were made several times in the state’s General Assembly but failed to gain a majority until “The Jew Bill,” as it was widely — and somewhat derisively — called, finally passed in 1826.
The leader of the effort was Delegate Thomas Kennedy of Hagerstown, a non-Jew who had emigrated from Scotland and had never even met a Jew but strongly supported religious freedom.
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