[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 57 Introduced in House (IH)]

114th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 57

   Urging the Secretary of State that in 2015, a year of significant 
    anniversaries for the Jewish people, United States embassies in 
  appropriate countries should commemorate this anniversary year with 
significant public events including the message that the opportunities 
  for remembrance and reflection contained in these anniversaries are 
                       applicable to all peoples.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 27, 2015

  Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. 
Lipinski, Mr. Meadows, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Rangel, and Ms. Meng) submitted 
   the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                            Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Urging the Secretary of State that in 2015, a year of significant 
    anniversaries for the Jewish people, United States embassies in 
  appropriate countries should commemorate this anniversary year with 
significant public events including the message that the opportunities 
  for remembrance and reflection contained in these anniversaries are 
                       applicable to all peoples.

Whereas 2015 will be the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of the Nuremberg 
        laws, which on September 15, 1935, deprived Jews and other ``non-
        Aryans'' of German citizenship and discriminated against them in other 
        ways;
Whereas the Nuremberg laws are remembered as infamous exercises of anti-Semitism 
        and racism as official state policy;
Whereas 2015 will be the 70th anniversary of the end of the Holocaust, and more 
        specifically the liberation of Auschwitz, which on January 27, 1945, was 
        liberated by Soviet troops who encountered approximately 7,500 living 
        prisoners;
Whereas the liberation of Auschwitz has come to symbolize the end of the 
        Holocaust, as this was the place where at least 1,100,000 people, 
        approximately 90 percent of whom were Jewish, were murdered as a matter 
        of official state policy of Nazi Germany;
Whereas 2015 will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic 
        relations between the State of Israel and the Federal Republic of 
        Germany, which occurred on May 12, 1965;
Whereas in establishing diplomatic relations Israel and Germany, in a spirit of 
        goodwill and shared democracy and common values, overcame the painful 
        memories of the Holocaust and deepened their reconciliation;
Whereas 2015 will be the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of Nostra Aetate 
        (``In Our Time''), the Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to 
        Non-Christian Religions, in which on October 28, 1965, Pope Paul VI made 
        an authoritative declaration on Catholic-Jewish relations and also on 
        Catholic-interfaith relations;
Whereas Nostra Aetate condemned anti-Semitism, opened the doors for Catholic-
        Jewish dialogue and cooperation, has been widely credited as 
        contributing greatly to reversing centuries of misunderstanding between 
        Christians and Jews, and has been a touchstone statement on mutual 
        respect for all religions;
Whereas these anniversaries will be widely observed and occasions for reflection 
        by many people in 2015; and
Whereas the lessons contained in the anniversaries are applicable beyond those 
        nations and faiths involved in the events they mark: Now, therefore, be 
        it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) urges the Administration to continue efforts to combat 
        anti-Semitism globally and issue public statements and hold 
        appropriate public events that reflect on the significant 
        anniversaries of 2015, which are important to the Jewish people 
        and are applicable to all peoples everywhere;
            (2) urges the Secretary of State that in 2015, a year of 
        significant anniversaries for the Jewish people, United States 
        embassies in appropriate countries should observe these 
        anniversaries with significant public events and statements;
            (3) further urges the Secretary of State that in 2015 the 
        United States Mission to the United Nations and the United 
        States Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation 
        in Europe should observe these anniversaries with similar 
        public events and statements;
            (4) calls on the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to 
        observe these anniversaries with significant programming 
        including the message that the opportunities for remembrance 
        and reflection contained in these anniversaries are applicable 
        to all peoples, such as by making every effort possible to 
        ensure that this programming is not censored on the Internet or 
        through electronic interference of radio and TV broadcasting;
            (5) expresses sympathy to the families of all those who 
        suffered due to the Nuremberg laws and during the Holocaust;
            (6) expresses appreciation to governments, groups, and 
        individuals that will appropriately mark these anniversaries, 
        and work to perpetuate the remembrance of Nazi anti-Semitism 
        and the Holocaust, and to promote inter-ethnic and 
        interreligious reconciliation;
            (7) appreciates the role of the Holy See in combating 
        religious intolerance and religious discrimination and 
        acknowledges the role of Nostra Aetate in fostering 
        interreligious dialogue; and
            (8) condemns all forms of anti-Semitic abuses that are 
        ongoing throughout the world, whether committed by governments 
        or by other persons or groups, particularly in the forms of 
        denying or minimizing the Holocaust and other crimes of Nazi 
        Germany.
                                 <all>