President Truman today attended a ceremony marking the laying of a cornerstone for a new temple of the Reform Washington Hebrew Congregation and participated in the ceremony by delivering an address in which he called upon leaders of all creeds to stand together against “outbursts of bigotry that arise from time to time.”
The President emphasized that in the United States “we can all prevent bigotry if we will all be true to our national ideals.” He called for “mutual respect and tolerance for the beliefs of others.” This, he said, “is the secret of strength in this blessed land.”
Mr. Truman recalled George Washington’s letter to the Jewish community at Newport, R.I., in 1790 when Washington assured the Jews that the government would give “to bigotry no sanction, and to persecution no assistance. ” He said “it is up to us in our time to maintain this principle.” Commenting on the many congratulatory messages received by the congregation, the President said this demonstrated “the mutual respect that exists and must continue to exist between the faiths.”
Participation by President Truman in the ceremony followed a precedent established before the Civil War. Almost every President in the past century has taken part, in one way or another, in the congregation’s calendar of events. The Hebrew Congregation claims to be the oldest in Washington and to be the only one in the United States founded by a charter issued by Congress.
President McKinley and his Cabinet attended the laying of the last cornerstone for the Congregation in 1897. The new site is on Massachusetts Avenue where many embassies are located. The new building will seat 2,290 and will be air conditioned throughout. Rabbi Norman Gerstenfeld, spiritual leader of the temple, said it will be a center “where the men and women of many creeds will find something in which they can take part.”
In 1885 a special charter for the congregation was issued by Congress and signed by President Franklin Pierce. It extended “the rights, privileges and immunities heretofore granted by law to the Christian groups in the city” to the Jewish group. One of those instrumental in obtaining the historic charter was Capt. Uriah P. Levy, highest ranking officer of the U.S. Navy of the Jewish faith at that time.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
