[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 15, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9251-S9252]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ROSH HASHANAH

  Mr. DASCHLE. Mr. President, this evening, Jewish families and 
communities will come together to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish 
New Year, and offer their prayers for a sweet and peaceful year ahead.
  Growing up in Aberdeen, my family was close to three Jewish families, 
the Franks, Feinsteins, and the Preds. They introduced me to the Rosh 
Hashanah celebration. I have always remembered the warmth of their 
celebration as well as the generosity and friendship they offered to a 
young Catholic boy growing up in the neighborhood.
  I wanted to take this opportunity to extend my wishes for a Shana 
Tova, a good year, to my friends in the Jewish community across the 
country and around the world.
  This year, Rosh Hashanah arrives at an auspicious anniversary. This 
month, we mark the 350th anniversary of the first Jewish settlement in 
America.
  In September of 1654, a small ship carrying 23 Jews from Brazil 
arrived at the southern tip of Manhattan.
  They had been told of a new land founded in the name of religious 
freedom. So this small group of settlers set out across the ocean to 
find a home where they could live in peace and follow the tenets of 
their faith and the dictates of their conscience.
  As has been the case with so many immigrants of every faith, from 
every part of the world and every generation since, they found that 
home in America.
  Throughout the generations, the American Jewish community has been a 
leader in the effort to ensure that the fundamental American value of 
religious freedom is honored and protected.
  While the history of the American Jewish community offers this Rosh 
Hashanah a special sweetness, the Jewish community and its friends 
welcome the High Holy Days with a certain anxiety, as well.
  While Israel has taken important steps toward increasing its own 
security, Israeli families still live under the shadow of terrorism, 
and the Palestinian Authority has yet to take concrete steps to end the 
violence.
  Just 2 weeks ago, two simultaneous attacks by Hamas suicide bombers 
took the lives of 16 Israelis. It came as a terrible reminder of the 
fear that continues to pervade the lives of Israelis.
  In addition, friends of Israel have also watched with growing concern 
as Iran, which is sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, takes 
steps toward becoming a nuclear power.
  The instability in Iraq, if not brought under control, may one day 
threaten

[[Page S9252]]

the stability of that entire region, including Israel.
  At the same time, Jews throughout the world have watched as the 
terrible specter of anti-Semitism re-emerges in Europe. Jewish 
cemeteries have been vandalized. Synagogues and Jewish schools have 
been the targets of terrorism. School children have been attacked for 
no other reason than they were identified as Jews.
  At the recent Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism held by the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Elie Wiesel 
expressed the shock and surprise shared by many of us who hoped that 
Europe could not so soon forget the history and lessons of the 
Holocaust.
  ``Had any pessimist told me,'' Wiesel said, ``that in my lifetime, I 
would hear stories of Jews in Berlin or Paris being advised by friends 
not to wear a [skullcap] in the street so as not to attract hostility 
and peril, I would not have believed it. But it now has become 
reality.''
  Wiesel concluded by warning the conferees that ``the history of 
Nazism teaches us that hatred is like cancer. It often grows 
underground, and when detected it is too late. If unchecked 
immediately, it will invade its natural surroundings. What began in the 
mind will destroy the brain. Then the heart.''
  The OSCE's Berlin Declaration, calling for a coordinated, 
international response against the crimes of anti-Semitism and racism, 
was an important step forward for Europe and the world. But its words 
must be backed with real action and commitment.
  It is not enough to speak out against racist attacks. Wherever the 
crime of anti-Semitism is committed, the world has a shared 
responsibility to ensure the perpetrators are punished.
  Therefore, I have asked the U.S. Commission on International 
Religious Freedom to follow through on each of the recommendations of 
the Berlin Declaration.
  In addition, later today Senator Dodd and I will send a letter to the 
Commission calling on it to investigate why 10 years after the bombing 
of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, none of the terrorists 
responsible have been brought to justice.
  The United States must make a clear statement. If you wish to be a 
member of the family of nations, you cannot turn a blind eye to the 
violence of anti-Semitism and racism.
  We are all bound by a common obligation to fight for justice and to 
fight for peace. And in a way, Rosh Hashanah can serve as a reminder of 
these shared responsibilities.
  This year also represents another anniversary celebrated by Americans 
and the American Jewish community in particular. 2004 marks the 
centennial of the birth of one of America's greatest writers and 
storytellers, Isaac Bashevis Singer.
  In a story entitled, ``Joy,'' Singer tells of a Rabbi from a small 
Russian village who suffers the loss of each of his six children. His 
faith is shaken, and he turns his back on his tradition and community. 
On the eve of Rosh Hashana, he sees a vision of his youngest daughter 
who had died many years earlier, and his faith is restored. He 
immediately goes to the synagogue and asks to speak. Because of the 
lunar calendar, Rosh Hashana always coincides with the new moon. So he 
asks, what is the meaning of the fact that ``the moon is obscured on 
Rosh Hashanah?''
  The answer, he says, is that ``on Rosh Hashana one prays for life, 
and life means free choice, and freedom is mystery. . . . If hell and 
paradise were in the middle of the marketplace, everyone would be a 
saint.
  ``Of all the blessings bestowed on man, the greatest lies in the fact 
that God's face is hidden from him.
  ``Men are the children of the Almighty, and He plays hide and seek 
with them. He hides His face, and the children seek Him, while they 
have faith that He exists.''
  In a way, the search that Singer speaks of connects us all. 
Individually and as a nation we try to find the wisdom and the courage 
to do what is right, and to extend justice here at home and throughout 
the world.
  The way may not always be clear. But alongside our friends in the 
Jewish community, this Rosh Hashana we can recommit ourselves to 
creating a world where no one, anywhere in the world, suffers the kind 
of persecution and violence that led that small band of Jewish settlers 
to flee half way across the world more than 350 years ago. The memory 
of their voyage and the beginning of Rosh Hashana remind us of this 
historic aspect of our Nation's role in the world, and call us back to 
our duty.

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