[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                 RECOGNIZING THE ELIJAH MOMENT CAMPAIGN

 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, we have recently returned from 
the Thanksgiving holiday, when Americans from all walks of life come 
together with family and friends to express gratitude for our good 
fortune and great blessings. The weekend following Thanksgiving was 
devoted by many to holiday shopping--a good opportunity to support 
local businesses but also too often a spectacle of commercialization 
that threatens to obscure the true meaning of the holiday season.
  Today, I would like to honor the work of two Connecticut community 
leaders for their laudable efforts to remind us of the holiday's true 
meaning. Rabbi Daniel Cohen of Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford 
and Pastor Greg Doll of Noroton Presbyterian Church in Darien have 
together launched the Elijah Moment Campaign. Named after a figure in 
Jewish tradition who appears spontaneously to help those in need, this 
interfaith campaign seeks to encourage simple acts of kindness between 
friends and strangers alike. Each recipient of an act of generosity 
goes on to ``pay it forward'' by helping someone else. Even seemingly 
minor gifts like buying a stranger's cup of coffee, as occurred en 
masse during a campaign-organized kindness event at a Stamford 
Starbucks last week, can motivate significant acts of charity and 
promote a prevailing spirit of benevolence.
  I am grateful to Rabbi Cohen and Pastor Doll for coming together to 
remind us, in their words, that ``an act of generosity as simple as a 
kind word can transform a fleeting moment into an eternal one.'' The 
simplest acts of giving highlights the strong connections we all share, 
even as divisive rhetoric at home and violent acts abroad threaten our 
solidarity and safety. I honor and admire the spirit of the Elijah 
Moment Campaign, and I encourage all to do the same.

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