[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 17 (Monday, April 29, 1996)]
[Pages 693-694]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6887--Jewish Heritage Week, 1996

April 19, 1996

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The Jewish experience in America has been a mutually rewarding one 
for this country and for the Jewish people. Jewish Americans have made 
great contributions in such fields as the arts and sciences, business, 
government, law and medicine, enriching America's heritage with the 
resonant tradition of an ancient people. And America, for its part, has 
been a land of opportunity for its Jewish citizens.
    In many ways, the Jewish experience is unique, freighted with the 
anguish of frequent persecution, but ennobled by an unyielding spirit 
that has always found a way to turn darkness into light. In the crucible 
of sorrow, the Jewish people have reaffirmed, time and again, the basic 
human values of faith, community, justice, and hope.
    On the tolerant soil of American democracy, the Jewish people have 
flourished. We will be forever grateful for the remarkable contributions 
of our Jewish citizens, and it is fitting that we set aside a week to 
give thanks for their inestimable gifts and to honor the traditions of 
their remarkable religion and heritage.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 21 
through April 28, 1996, as Jewish Heritage Week. I call upon the people 
of the United States to observe this week with appropriate programs, 
ceremonies, and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day 
of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and nine- 

[[Page 694]]

ty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twentieth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:21 a.m., April 22, 
1996]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
23. This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.