[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 51 (Monday, April 23, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S3773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                                 prayer

  The Chaplain, Dr. Lloyd John Ogilvie, offered the following prayer:
  Yaweh our Adonai, how excellent is Your name in all the Earth. Today, 
as we return from recess and at the beginning of Jewish Heritage Week, 
we praise You for the immense contribution Jews have made to America. 
We remember the first Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island 
comprised of Sephardim, persecuted Spanish and Portugese Jews who 
arrived in the spring of 1658. This group of refugees began to worship 
together in private homes or rented buildings until a synagogue 
building, the Touro Hebrew Congregation, was constructed. On the wall 
of this synagogue is a letter from George Washington expressing his 
belief in religious freedom as the standard for civil liberty: ``To 
bigotry give no sanction, to persecution no assistance.'' We also echo 
the words of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island: ``All men may 
walk as their consciences persuade them, everyone in the name of his 
God.''
  On this day we thank You for the ten Jewish Senators and their strong 
moral and social consciences. May Your shalom rest upon us all. Amen.

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