[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 64 (Monday, May 22, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 22, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to thank Representative Debbie 
Wasserman Schultz for her hard work on behalf of recognizing May as 
Jewish American Heritage month and to express my gratitude to the 
President for his proclamation making May Jewish American Heritage 
Month.
  After the burning of the Second Temple and the final dispersion of 
the Jews from Zion, people of Jewish heritage have settled in every 
corner of the world. There are Jews in China, in India, in Mexico and 
in Greece. While Hitler almost murdered all the Jews of Europe, he did 
not entirely succeed.
  Because of the moral values of this country we put our entire Nation 
into the fight against the Nazis in World War II. What is so remarkable 
about the fact that the United States fought so fiercely and so bravely 
in World War II is that they did so to save the world. That desire 
arose from the Nation's character, which is an amalgam of the religious 
heritage of its people--including its Jewish people.
  Today I think about the Jewish soldiers in World War II who fought 
not even knowing of the death camps and the ovens. I think of the men 
who risked their lives every day in the mud of France and the fields of 
Belgium because they knew what was spreading and taking over Europe was 
immoral. When Eisenhower's troops first came upon a death camp, he made 
the camp guards and the German villagers who had lived in the green 
fields and gardens around the camp come to view the bodies and to bury 
them. The message was clear: Americans find what you have done here and 
you villagers have tolerated here to be an immense crime, an 
unimaginable crime.
  The greatness of our people is their character. Jewish people have 
brought a lot to the making of that character. Jews have known that the 
values in the Five Books of Moses are universal and throughout 2,000 
years of Diaspora brought their values with them to the shores of all 
the countries where they settled, including America.
  Judaism is a religion and a value system. No one who is not a Jew is 
considered less a person by a Jew. No stranger can be left without 
shelter, no hungry man without bread.
  I could not help but notice in the Save Darfur Coalition and other 
grass roots organizations working so hard to stop the genocide in 
Darfur that many Jewish organizations are involved in the grass roots 
efforts. Among them are the American World Jewish Congress, the 
American Jewish Committee, Jews against Genocide and the Religious 
Action Center for Reform Judaism. I have received letters from children 
in Jewish schools asking me to help the people of Darfur. Jewish people 
have a special understanding about genocide. The parents of these 
children who write to me may have lost grandparents, uncles, aunts, 
cousins. But they also know they can write to their Congressman and 
their children can write and ask for help for these people so far away 
who are in desperate trouble as their relatives once were.
  One of the characteristics I most admire is the activism many of the 
Jewish people engage in. That activism has meant a great deal to the 
civil rights movement. I also admire the way Jews have contributed to 
the ``personality'' of New York. As a New Yorker, I feel especially 
lucky because I have learned some Yiddish, some great jokes and have 
met some truly amazing people who love books, culture, art and life. 
I'm glad for the Jewish heritage I experience in my district every day 
I am at home.
  I say to Jewish Americans today: Congratulations and mazol tov.




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