For all those who scoff at the notion of American exceptionalism, you should have heard Amy Gutmann’s address last week at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History. The former Penn president and U.S. Ambassador to Germany — the country her father’s family fled in 1937 — was there to accept the “Only In America” award.

It was a night of uplifting speechmaking. Among them: Citizen Chairman, former Penn Chair and US Ambassador to Canada David Cohen, as well as Governor Josh Shapiro and NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell. But it was Gutmann who reminded the crowd that the notion of American exceptionalism need not be seen as jingoistic or marked by hubris. Instead, the award’s title really ought to have deep meaning for us all, a nation built again and again by strivers and seekers and

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