Jewish American Heritage Month, 2025

Proclamation 10940 of May 16, 2025

Jewish American Heritage Month, 2025

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Since the time the United States was but a coalition of
villages and settlements, America's Jewish citizens
have played an indispensable role in our national
story. They arrived as farmers, soldiers, tailors, and
merchants, settling quickly and contributing greatly to
the fields of law, art, science, and medicine. At
crucial moments, Jewish Americans have joined their
fellow citizens in working towards America's unique
vision of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

The New World allowed those Jewish people emigrating
from Europe to freely practice their faith without
persecution, for the American experiment offered
something providential--an escape from every indignity,
every abuse, and every tragedy visited upon the Jewish
people over their long history.

In my proclamation declaring Jewish American Heritage
Month in 2019, I drew from the words President George
Washington drafted and sent to the Hebrew Congregation
of Newport, Rhode Island, on August 18, 1790,
addressing the Jewish citizens of our new Republic.
President Washington's letter contained a blessing,
that ``the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell
in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will
of the other Inhabitants; while everyone shall sit in
safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall
be none to make him afraid.''

During my first 4 years as President, in the several
proclamations I issued for Jewish American Heritage
Month, I often had the unfortunate task of contrasting
President Washington's timeless blessing with whatever
violent acts of anti-Semitism had occurred in the
previous year. Each time, it was an all too painful
reminder of the fragility of President Washington's
words.

Then, October 7, 2023, happened, shattering the peace,
not only abroad but also at home. Since those horrific
attacks, the Jewish community in the United States--and
around the world--has faced an incredible trial, though
one that was not unfamiliar in Jewish history. College
campuses and city streets erupted into violence. Blood
libels were displayed proudly at protests. Those
wearing yarmulkes were openly assaulted in the streets.
The America that its Jewish citizens felt that they
once knew appeared to have shifted completely.

In his letter, President Washington championed a
different vision: ``For happily the Government of the
United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to
persecution no assistance requires only that they who
live under its protection should demean themselves as
good citizens.''

Since the day I resumed my duties as President--and
following President Washington's example--my
Administration has been determined to confront anti-
Semitism in all its manifestations. I say that at home
and abroad, on college campuses and in city streets,
this dangerous return of anti-Semitism--at times
disguised as anti-Zionism, Holocaust denialism, and
false equivalencies of every kind--must find no
quarter.

We proudly celebrate the history and culture of the
Jewish people in America, and we hold that President
Washington's words, though nearly 250 years old, still
carry the revolutionary promise of our Republic: that
every citizen

who demeans himself as a good citizen shall sit in
safety under his own vine and fig tree--a covenant
added to a blessing.

I believe there has never been a greater friend to the
Jewish people than my Administration. We will never
deviate from our conviction that anti-Semitism has no
place in the greatest country in the world. As the 47th
President of the United States, I will use every
appropriate legal tool at my disposal to stop anti-
Semitic assaults gripping our universities. We will
proudly stand with our friend and ally, the State of
Israel. I will never waver in my commitment.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim May 2025 as Jewish
American Heritage Month. I call upon Americans to
celebrate the heritage and contributions of American
Jews and to observe this month with appropriate
programs, activities, and ceremonies.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
ninth.