Proclamation 4752—Jewish Heritage Week

Ever since the first Dutch Jew set foot in New Amsterdam in 1654, Jews have been contributing bountifully to the culture and history of our country. Indeed, the history of the Jewish people in America goes all the way back to the Jewish scientists and mariners who helped Columbus reach the New World. Later, Jews took an active part in the War of Independence, in the settlement of the West, and in the dynamic expansion of American technology. In medicine, education, trade, the law, politics, the labor movement, religion, motion pictures, athletics, literature, and more, the Jewish people have richly endowed America and the American way of life. American Jews have made their heritage?a heritage of struggle for freedom, knowledge, and human dignity?part of the inheritance of all Americans.

In recognition of this contribution, and in an effort to foster understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity that has made America great, Jewish Heritage Week is celebrated each spring throughout the United States. This April is a particularly appropriate month because it contains events of special significance to the Jewish calendar?Passover, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, Israeli Independence Day, Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry, and the Days of Remembrance of Victims and Survivors of the Holocaust. Therefore, the Congress of the United States, by joint resolution, has requested the President to proclaim April 21 through April 28, 1980, as Jewish Heritage Week (H.J. Res. 474).

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning Monday, April 21, as Jewish Heritage Week.

I call upon the people of the United States, Federal and local government officials, and interested organizations to observe that week with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth day of April in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourth.

JIMMY CARTER