John F. Kennedy photo

Statement by the President: The Jewish High Holy Days.

September 06, 1961

I AM HAPPY to extend to millions of our fellow citizens of the Jewish faith, now celebrating Rosh Hashanah, my warm greetings and every good wish for the New Year.

In every celebration of ending and beginning there is both the remembrance of tribulation and the anticipation of good. There is, too, the knowledge that suffering must make both a people and a man more certain of the right, while triumph brings with it the command to respect that right.

This is the hard wisdom of the centuries, marked again with the turning of each new season. We in the United States have found our way as a free people because we have gathered in our own traditions the experience of many peoples and lives. We have learned that tolerance and cooperation are the ways to true national strength. Americans of the Jewish faith have given to their country a great gift in this regard.

I know that all Americans, of every faith, join with me in this greeting and wish for an abundant and peaceful year.

JOHN F. KENNEDY

John F. Kennedy, Statement by the President: The Jewish High Holy Days. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235575

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