[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 86 (Friday, May 3, 2013)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 26215-26216]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-10745]


 
 
                         Presidential Documents 
 
 

  Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 86 / Friday, May 3, 2013 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 26215]]


                Proclamation 8966 of April 30, 2013

                
Jewish American Heritage Month, 2013

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                In his second year in office, President George 
                Washington wrote a letter to the Touro Synagogue in 
                Newport, Rhode Island--one of our Nation's first Jewish 
                houses of worship--and reaffirmed our country's 
                commitment to religious freedom. He noted that the 
                Government of the United States would give ``to bigotry 
                no sanction [and] to persecution no assistance,'' and 
                that all Americans are entitled to ``liberty of 
                conscience and immunities of citizenship.'' Those words 
                ring as true today as they did then, and they speak to 
                a principle as old as America itself: that no matter 
                who you are, where you come from, or what faith you 
                practice, all of us have an equal share in America's 
                promise.

                It was such a belief that drew generations of Jewish 
                immigrants to our shores. It is what brought Jewish 
                families westward when pogroms and persecution cast a 
                shadow over Europe in the last century. It is what led 
                Holocaust survivors and Jews trapped behind the Iron 
                Curtain to rebuild their lives across the Atlantic. And 
                with every group that arrived here, the Jewish American 
                community grew stronger. Our Nation grew stronger. 
                Jewish immigrants from all over the world wove new 
                threads into our cultural fabric with rich traditions 
                and indomitable faith, and their descendants pioneered 
                incredible advances in science and the arts. Teachings 
                from the Torah lit the way toward a more perfect Union, 
                from women's rights to workers' rights to the end of 
                segregation.

                That story is still unfolding today. Jewish Americans 
                continue to guide our country's progress as scientists 
                and teachers, public servants and private citizens, 
                wise leaders and loving parents. We see their 
                accomplishments in every neighborhood, and we see them 
                abroad in our unbreakable bond with Israel that Jewish 
                Americans helped forge. More than 350 years have passed 
                since Jewish refugees first made landfall on American 
                shores. We take this month to celebrate the progress 
                that followed, and the bright future that lies ahead.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the 
                United States, do hereby proclaim May 2013 as Jewish 
                American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to 
                visit www.JewishHeritageMonth.gov to learn more about 
                the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and 
                to observe this month with appropriate programs, 
                activities, and ceremonies.

[[Page 26216]]

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirtieth day of April, in the year two thousand 
                thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States 
                of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2013-10745
Filed 5-2-13; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F3