Governor Proclaims Jewish American Heritage Month 2024

JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

2024

BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, Jewish American Heritage Month is a time to honor the significant religious, cultural, political, economic, athletic, scientific, academic, and philanthropic contributions Jewish Americans have made to our state and nation; and

WHEREAS, the first Jewish person in North Carolina was Joachim Ganz who arrived at Roanoke Island on Sir Walter Raleigh’s second expedition in 1585, and the Jewish community in North Carolina has continued to grow over the subsequent centuries; and

WHEREAS, in 1809, Jacob Henry delivered a ringing endorsement of religious liberty when he defended his right as a Jewish person to serve in the state legislature; since then, Jewish North Carolinians have served our state and our country in uniform, in elected office at the local and statewide level, on the bench, and in many other public service positions; and

WHEREAS, Jewish North Carolinians opened pioneering schools dedicated to educating women, worked tirelessly for women’s suffrage, fought for social and racial justice, and continue to work for the civil betterment of all people in North Carolina; and

WHEREAS, the state of North Carolina has worked closely with the Jewish community and law enforcement to combat the rising scourge of antisemitism and protect houses of worship and other religious spaces so that all people may worship freely and without fear; and

WHEREAS, the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust teaches us that combatting prejudice, indifference, and systemic bias can create a more tolerant society, and North Carolina’s Jewish community continues to work with members of all faiths and backgrounds so that “never again shall any peoples suffer the evils of discrimination and racial or religious hatred;”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim May, 2024, as “JEWISH AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.

________________________________________

Roy Cooper

Governor

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the Great Seal of the State of North Carolina at the Capitol in Raleigh this thirteenth day of May in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.