In the middle of a park, in the middle of Jerusalem, sits a replica of the Liberty Bell. Because the area is named for it—Gan Ha-Pa’amon, Liberty Bell Park—it is often assumed that the bell was created specifically for that space. The true tale of Jerusalem’s Liberty Bell is far more interesting.

In 1956, Richardson Dilworth, the mayor of Philadelphia, visited Israel. As a gift from his city, he brought an exact replica of the bell that had been cast in 1751 to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s charter of liberties. Photographs uncovered in 2023 by Knesset archivist Inda Novominsky reveal that the new bell was originally placed on the grounds of the original building in which Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, convened. And it was emblazoned with words from Leviticus: “Proclaim Liberty unto all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” The gift was a way of quite literally linking America and the biblical heritage of Jerusalem.

When the new (and present) Knesset edifice was about to be inaugurated in 1966, the bell was moved elsewhere on the Knesset campus. A decade later, Teddy Kollek, the legendary mayor of Jerusalem, had an inspiration. He had planned to place a bell in a new park that was to be opened in honor of America’s Bicentennial in 1976 as “an expression of the esteem in which we hold the American people and for their great assistance in the renaissance of the Jewish people in its land.” But why do so when there was exactly the thing nearby? “I would like the Knesset to make available to us the bell that is in the Knesset garden,” Kollek wrote to the speaker of the House, who agreed to relocate it from the Parliament area to the new park.

It was an entirely understandable move—but, in my view, a grievous error. The gift from Philadelphia was a remarkable object, an American version of France’s gift of the Statue of Liberty. Just as the latter was intended to commemorate the alliance that won the Revolution, the second Philadelphia Bell was meant to link American liberty with the only democracy in the Middle East. Its proper place was therefore the legislature, to be seen by the dignitaries and citizens visiting the Knesset, not the denizens of Jerusalem picnicking in a park.

Today, with so many seeking to create divisions between America and Israel, this moving representation of the bond between the two nations is all the more important. That was supposed to be noted on the bell itself; the Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset speaker agreed to transfer the Bell on condition that there was a “clear indication that the bell was placed there at the discretion of the Knesset,” which would signal that Israel continued to honor the original intention of the Philadelphia mayor in bringing it to Israel. Yet no such sign or indication “was ever put in place”; the Bell’s sudden appearance in the park has been a kind of mystery ever since. Few know that it was created as a sign of American esteem for the Jewish state and the biblical bond between the two nations.

Fifty years later, one way of Israel’s congratulating America on its 250th birthday presents itself: Move the bell back.

This proposal should appeal to the prime minister of Israel, who cares greatly about the intellectual links between America and Israel, and the way in which the latter sits in the Middle East as the vanguard for liberty on behalf of the Western world. The bell, at least for the coming year, could be placed in a prominent location inside the Israeli legislature. An accompanying plaque could give the historical and biblical background of the Bell’s inscription.

And in celebration of America’s birthday, and the role of the Bible in inspiring it, the bell could, perhaps, also be accompanied by a quote from Abraham Lincoln, who, visiting Philadelphia and Constitution Hall before his inauguration in 1861, was inspired to make a biblical allusion of his own:

Your worthy Mayor has expressed the wish, in which I join with him…to listen to those breathings rising within the consecrated walls where the Constitution of the United States, and, I will add, the Declaration of American Independence was originally framed, I would do so. I assure you and your Mayor that I had hoped on this occasion, and upon all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing inconsistent with the teachings of those holy and most sacred walls. I have never asked anything that does not breathe from those walls. All my political warfare has been in favor of the teachings coming forth from that sacred hall. May my right hand forget its cunning and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to those teachings. (Emphasis added.)

“If I forget thee, O Philadelphia,” may not have the same ring to it as “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,” but gratitude and decency dictate that its mayor’s gift not be forgotten. To read of the creation of the Gan Ha-Pa’amon is to ponder the wonder that is the expansion of Jerusalem itself. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in the 1970s that the park would replace “a waste patch in the south of the capital, between Keren Hayesod Street and the railway station.” Those who have been to the park know that today, it is miles away from Jerusalem’s “south,” as the city has grown. But the replica of the Liberty Bell also inspires us to ponder the wonder that is America: a young country, to be sure, but the oldest continuous democracy in the history of the world. The original bell has been broken for almost 200 years; on July 4, 2026, Israel has the unique opportunity to sound its version and let freedom ring.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons 

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