Jewish American Heritage Month
NARA is proud to observe Jewish American Heritage Month and to recognize Jewish contributions to American culture, history, military, science, government, and more.
In 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month. This was a result of a concerted effort by American Jewish leaders to introduce resolutions in both the U.S. Senate and the House urging the President to proclaim a month specifically recognizing Jews in America and their contributions to the United States.
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks at a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives, December 14, 2018, (National Archives photo by Kitty Kouwenhoven)
Singer Eddie Cantor (center) sits next to former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt at a dinner of the Massachusetts Committee of Catholics, Protestants, and Jews in Boston, MA, May 25, 1950. Also seated (left to right): Frank Leahy and Paul Devers. (National Archives Identifier 196768)
Entertainer Sammy Davis, Jr., at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (National Archives Identifier 542050)
Olympic gold medalist swimmer Mark Spitz (far right) with Suzy Spitz, President Gerald Ford, and First Lady Betty Ford, October 7, 1976. (Gerald R. Ford Library, National Archives Identifier 45644231)
Hester Street, on the Lower East Side of New York City (ca. 1903), housed a sizable community of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. (National Archives Identifier 3854683)
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, claimed 146 lives, mostly recently immigrated Jewish women. A march on April 5, 1911, attracted thousands of women calling for safer working conditions and union representation. (National Archives Identifier 5730933)
Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue in New York and his 18-year-old son became laborers in the shipbuilding yards of the Luders Marine Construction Company, at Stamford, CT, during World War I. (National Archives Identifier 533712)
Soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force sit down for a Passover seder in Paris, France, hosted by the Jewish Welfare Board, April 1919. (National Archives Identifier 531147)
The Young Women's Hebrew Association in New York City hosted “Informal Entertaining” for American soldiers and sailors, ca. 1918 (National Archives Identifier 45564211)
Songwriter Irving Berlin (center) shakes the hand of Bob Hope at a White House Dinner held in honor of returning Vietnam prisoners of war, May 24, 1974. Also on stage are President Richard Nixon, Vic Damone, Sammy Davis, Jr., and First Lady Patricia Nixon. (National Archives Identifier 7268213)
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez perform at the Civil Rights March on Washington, DC, August 28, 1963. (National Archives Identifier 542021)
Barbara Walters and President Gerald R. Ford prior to an interview at the New York Hilton in New York City. (National Archives Identifier 45644167)
Senator Joseph Lieberman (right), with Governor of Connecticut Dan Patrick Malloy and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, listens to reports from Federal, state and local officials following Hurricane Sandy. November 1, 2012. (Photo by Holly Stephens/FEMA, National Archives Identifier 24470016)