[United States Statutes at Large, Volume 127, 113th Congress, 1st Session]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

 
PROCLAMATION 8966--APR. 30, 2013

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.



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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.
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.
BARACK OBAMA