Proclamation 6887—Jewish Heritage Week, 1996

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 ninety-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twentieth.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON