R-158 Page 1 of 1
2023
No. R-158. House concurrent resolution recognizing May 2023 as Jewish American Heritage Month in Vermont.
(H.C.R.125)
Offered by: All Members of the House Offered by: Senators Kitchel and Ram Hinsdale Whereas, in 1654, after their expulsion from Recife, Brazil, six Jewish families sailed to the Dutch community of New Amsterdam, where, after initial official resistance, they started the first North American Jewish community, and Whereas, in 1790, President George Washington sent a letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island, in which he famously wrote, “For happily the Government of the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,
requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens,” and Whereas, Joshua Vita Montefiore was the first known Jew to settle in Vermont, arriving in 1835, and by the 1840s, a scattering of individual Jews and Jewish families lived in
northern Vermont, and Whereas, the first Jewish community in Vermont was established in Poultney in the
1870s, where it remained until it relocated to Rutland in 1906, and Whereas, a more enduring Jewish community was established in Burlington in the
1880s, where, in 1885, it established Congregation Ohavi Zedek, the oldest Jewish congregation in the State, and Whereas, Jewish Americans in Vermont and throughout the nation, despite encountering numerous instances of discrimination, have played leading roles in many fields of endeavor, and Whereas, in 2006, pursuant to a proclamation that President George W. Bush issued,
Jewish American Heritage Month was established, and, in the wake of the sharply rising incidents of antisemitism in the United States—which, according to the Anti-Defamation League, numbered in excess of 3,600 in 2022, the highest since the statistic was first monitored in 1979—an appreciation of the heritage and culture of Jewish Americans becomes especially timely, and Whereas, President Joseph R. Biden has issued a 2023 proclamation in recognition of
Jewish American Heritage Month, and various federal cultural institutions are commemorating this observance, now therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives:
That the General Assembly recognizes May 2023 as Jewish American Heritage Month in Vermont, and be it further Resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send a copy of this resolution to
the Jewish Communities of Vermont organization.
VT LEG #370837 v.1