When considering the sites upon which the foundations of the United States were established, Plymouth Rock, Valley Forge and Independence Hall come to mind.Yet America's Founding Fathers looked far beyond them for the inspiration to build a nation.In October 2020, the United States formally recognized the City of David — the historic site of biblical Jerusalem — as a heritage site.
Not as a Jewish heritage site, nor as an Israeli one, but as an American heritage site.Why would the United States recognize a site more than six thousand miles beyond its borders as part of its own national heritage? Why, in 2025, would Argentina's President Javier Milei do the same, calling the City of David a source of inspiration for his republic? And why, this past week, would Guatemala become the third nation to do so?THE WAR ON AMERICA’S JUDEO-CHRISTIAN ROOTS THREATENS EVERYTHING WE SHAREOverview of the excavation site in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem.(Israel Nature and Parks Authority)The answer is something Americans are in danger of forgetting.The moral bedrock on which the United States was built — and on which it endures — traces back to Jerusalem's biblical heritage.
Equality before the law.Inherent human dignity.
The right to speak truth to power.These revolutionary ideas didn't come from Athens, and they didn't originate in Rome.
They came from Jerusalem.Consider what they replaced: rulers who sat above the law, accountable to no one, in societies where only a select few were deemed worthy of rights at all.RARE AMERICAN BIBLE AND FOUNDERS’ LETTERS TRACE FAITH’S ROLE IN BIRTH OF THE NATIONYet in Jerusalem, three thousand years ago, when King David was confronted by the prophet Nathan over a moral failing, rather than execute the man who dared challenge a king, David took ownership — acknowledging his own accountability to the law, declaring that he had sinned before God and vowing to make amends.Thomas Paine knew the source of that ideal.I...