It is such an honor for me to enjoy the privilege of writing to express best wishes to our Jewish friends and neighbors as their communities around the world begin their observance of the season of the High Holidays. Tonight is the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and in the coming days will be Yom Kippur, the most sacred holiday of the Jewish calendar.
Jewish communities have been present in the U.S. since before the nation’s founding, but this year marks the 250th time that America’s Jews have observed these holy days under the protection of the laws and customs of the United States. It is hard to imagine how these congregations felt as religious minorities, often refugees or the immediate descendants of refugees, who had come to a very young nation that George Washington would later describe as one “which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
The ideals of the new nation so eloquently expressed in the Declaration of Independence, a few years later in the Constitution, and by President Washington himself have only ever been imperfectly realized. Jews, like most minority groups, have often been deprived of many of the promises due them. Unfortunately, this year is no different. The United States has not been insulated from the global rise in antisemitism, so today and the coming weeks will not be free of the anxieties that now accompany the times when Jews gather.
The violence and hatred that we see focused on Jews merely for being Jews must stop.
It is unimaginable that America would become a place unsafe for the Jewish communities that contributed so much to the nation’s flourishing. That is why AHA Foundation remains unwaveringly committed to opposing the resurgence of anti-Jewish attitudes and activism that plague our world.
As we wish each of our Jewish friends a sweet New Year and an easy fast to come, I invite all of our non-Jewish friends to join us as we stand in solidarity and share the hope that this season will be safe for Jews around the world.