At a Havdalah service held Saturday night at the floodlit Jefferson Memorial here, President Clinton spoke to members of B’nai B’rith about the importance of religious freedom in America.
The event, billed as the first religious ceremony to take place at the memorial, was part of B’nai B’rith’s weeklong 150th anniversary commemoration.
In the United States, “more people put religion at the center of their lives” than in “any other advanced society on Earth,” Clinton said.
Just as Jews separate Shabbat from the rest of the week, so should all Americans separate and “keep our faiths free from government coercion,” the president told the approximately 650 participants at the service.
Under clear, chilly skies, Clinton and other speakers paid tribute to Thomas Jefferson, whom Clinton called “the father of religious freedom in America.”
Clinton spoke from a podium directly in front of the Jefferson statue, which stands in the middle of the monument’s marble pillars, creating a dramatic effect for the onlookers.
He paid tribute to B’nai B’rith, speaking of the group’s long “straggle against bigotry and injustice.”
He noted that B’nai B’rith had opened a hospital decades ago in his hometown of Hot Springs, Ark., that “still serves hundreds” without regard to their ability to pay.
And he praised the group for its work in helping victims of floods and earthquakes, both in the United States and abroad.
Clinton also spoke of his administration’s commitment to a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East, one in which “Israel achieves lasting peace” with all its neighbors.
And on the domestic front, the president said he was “very proud of the cooperation I have seen in the United States” between Jewish and Arab Americans trying to “make peace work.”
Jewish writer Leon Uris, author of the novel “Exodus,” also addressed the crowd, and a local Jewish day school choir performed a selection of songs.
Also on the podium was First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who had addressed another Jewish organization, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the day before.
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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.
