Jewish American Heritage Month, 2013

Proclamation 8966 of April 30, 2013

Jewish American Heritage Month, 2013

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

In his second year in office, President George
Washington wrote a letter to the Touro Synagogue in
Newport, Rhode Island--one of our Nation's first Jewish
houses of worship--and reaffirmed our country's
commitment to religious freedom. He noted that the
Government of the United States would give ``to bigotry
no sanction [and] to persecution no assistance,'' and
that all Americans are entitled to ``liberty of
conscience and immunities of citizenship.'' Those words
ring as true today as they did then, and they speak to
a principle as old as America itself: that no matter
who you are, where you come from, or what faith you
practice, all of us have an equal share in America's
promise.

It was such a belief that drew generations of Jewish
immigrants to our shores. It is what brought Jewish
families westward when pogroms and persecution cast a
shadow over Europe in the last century. It is what led
Holocaust survivors and Jews trapped behind the Iron
Curtain to rebuild their lives across the Atlantic. And
with every group that arrived here, the Jewish American
community grew stronger. Our Nation grew stronger.
Jewish immigrants from all over the world wove new
threads into our cultural fabric with rich traditions
and indomitable faith, and their descendants pioneered
incredible advances in science and the arts. Teachings
from the Torah lit the way toward a more perfect Union,
from women's rights to workers' rights to the end of
segregation.

That story is still unfolding today. Jewish Americans
continue to guide our country's progress as scientists
and teachers, public servants and private citizens,
wise leaders and loving parents. We see their
accomplishments in every neighborhood, and we see them
abroad in our unbreakable bond with Israel that Jewish
Americans helped forge. More than 350 years have passed
since Jewish refugees first made landfall on American
shores. We take this month to celebrate the progress
that followed, and the bright future that lies ahead.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, 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 2013 as Jewish
American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to
visit www.JewishHeritageMonth.gov to learn more about
the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and
to observe this month with appropriate programs,
activities, and ceremonies.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
thirtieth day of April, in the year two thousand
thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.