America turns 250 in just a few weeks. On July 4th, the nation will celebrate a quarter-millennium of freedom, faith, and the founding ideals that shaped the greatest democratic experiment in history. But as the fireworks go up, a quieter crisis is unfolding, one the Founders never could have imagined. America is losing the Bible. And nobody is asking what the next 250 years look like without it.
Over the past decade, Bible engagement has dropped sharply across the country. In 2011, roughly half of all Americans engaged with Scripture regularly. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 38 percent, a slow bleed that accelerated into a near free-fall. Among those in the middle, people who weren’t deeply engaged but weren’t disengaged either, four percentage points were lost in a single year. That’s millions of people drifting away from the Book that built Western civilization.
And yet. More than half of all Americans say they wish they read the Bible more.
That gap, between longing and practice, between intention and engagement, is exactly where Israel365 is stepping in.
On Sunday, June 14 at 2:00 PM Eastern (1:00 PM Central / 9:00 PM Israel), Israel365 is hosting Open the Book: A National Conversation on Biblical Literacy, a free live online event bringing together some of the most important Jewish and Christian voices in America and Israel. Moderated by Rabbi Tuly Weisz, Founder of Israel365, and Rabbi Pesach Wolicki, Executive Director of Israel365 Action, the conversation will feature panelists Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, Troy Miller, President and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, Dr. Jim Garlow, Mrs. Yael Leibowitz, Rabbi J.J. Schachter of Yeshiva University, Pastor Steve Martin, and Dr. Corné J. Bekker of Regent University’s School of Divinity.
These are not panelists who read about the crisis from a distance. These are people who live inside it, leading churches, teaching Scripture, shaping policy, and fighting every day to keep biblical truth alive in American culture.
The questions they’ll tackle are urgent: What actually happens to a society when it loses the Bible? Why does the Hebrew Bible matter specifically for Christians today? And what can ordinary people, parents, pastors, teachers, community leaders, do right now to rebuild biblical literacy for the next generation?
When a generation grows up without knowing the Bible, the consequences ripple far beyond Sunday morning. They shape how people understand right and wrong, how they raise their children, what they believe about human dignity, about the land of Israel, about their own place in history. Biblical illiteracy is not a church problem. It is an American problem.
But here’s what the numbers also show: something unexpected is happening. Weekly Bible reading has climbed back to 42 percent, the highest rate since 2012, with Gen Z and Millennials leading the surge. The appetite is there. What’s missing is the conversation that channels it into something real and lasting.
Open the Book is that conversation.
Israel365 has spent years building bridges between Jewish and Christian communities around the shared foundation of the Hebrew Bible. This event brings that mission to a national stage at a moment when it matters most. It is free. It is live. And it is one hour that could genuinely change how you think, and what you do, about the Bible’s place in your life and your community.
The Founders who signed the Declaration, who debated the Constitution, who built this republic from scratch, were men steeped in Scripture. They quoted it, argued from it, and grounded their vision of human dignity in it. The next 250 years will be built by someone too. The question is whether they’ll know the Book that made the first 250 possible.
Register now at no cost and join us on June 14.
The Book is still here. The question is whether you’ll open it.
