I like this point in an essay about the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in the United States.

America...has something uncannily in common with Judaism, a religion that maintains that all Jews stood at Mount Sinai to receive the Torah; even if they are converts, their souls are retroactively invested with a kind of primary authenticity. America does the same for its citizens, whenever they become citizens. Everyone, naturalized or born here, is the inheritor not only of the rights and freedoms of the place, but its responsibilities too - whether or not one's ancestors were here to perpetrate past injustices or fight for greater equality. In this sense America itself is like Mount Sinai, which is hardly surprising, given the biblical inspiration of its founders.