2019 -- S 0852

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2019

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

COMMEMORATING "HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON MAY 2, 2019, AND

RECOGNIZING THE 71ST ANNIVERSARY OF ISRAEL'S ESTABLISHMENT

     Introduced By: Senators Miller, Goldin, Raptakis, Ruggerio, and Lombardi

     Date Introduced: May 02, 2019

     Referred To: Recommended for Immediate Consideration

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), is a solemn day of

remembrance honoring the victims of the Holocaust and those who showed resistance and

amazing heroism during this horrendous period in our world history. Seventy-four years ago,

Soviet forces and shortly thereafter, other Allied forces, liberated Auschwitz and other

concentration camps, liberating thousands of suffering and starving prisoners; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in world history from 1933

to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systematically and

barbarically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews

throughout Europe because they were perceived to be "racially inferior" and "life unworthy of

life"; and

     WHEREAS, This year marks the 76th Anniversary of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

and 56th Anniversary of the dedication of the Memorial to the Six Million. The citizens of Rhode

Island, having our own rich heritage of resistance and intolerance for those who would trample

individual liberty and dignity, applaud the courageous efforts of the ghetto residents for whom

day to day survival was a relentless struggle. Their brave actions in April and May of 1943 stand

as testimony to a rare and indomitable human spirit and extraordinary courage exhibited in the

darkest hours of man's inhumanity; and

     WHEREAS, Holocaust Remembrance Day is a day to make a special effort to remember.

It is a time to applaud all those who endured and who bravely rebuilt lives that had been so

cruelly shattered. It is also a time to acknowledge, with admiration, those heroes who risked and

often lost their own lives in order to save others; and

     WHEREAS, May 9, 2019, the 5th of Iyyar, 5779, of the Hebrew calendar, marks the 71st

Anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel; and

     WHEREAS, The desire of the Jewish people to establish an independent modern State of

Israel is the outgrowth of the existence of the historic Kingdom of Israel established three

thousand years ago in the city of Jerusalem and in the land of Israel; and

     WHEREAS, On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly voted to

partition the British Mandate of Palestine and, through that vote, to create the State of Israel; and

     WHEREAS, Three years after the end of World War II and the death of six million Jews

in the Holocaust, David Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence for Israel, made on May 14,

1948, fulfilled a spiritual yearning that had remained unrealized for over two millennia; and

     WHEREAS, On the day that the British formally ended its Mandate over Palestine, the

Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was signed by members of the National

Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and went into effect at midnight. Thus, the State of

Israel was proclaimed and the United States recognized and established full diplomatic relations

with Israel that same day; and

     WHEREAS, In May of 1948, Israel had a tiny population of some 650,000 Jews. Today,

with a population more than twelve times larger, the State of Israel has a stronger economy and

military than its founders ever envisioned. It has built a thriving economy larger than the

economies of all its immediate neighbors combined and it excels in science, technology, and

culture; and

     WHEREAS, Rhode Islanders have shared an affinity with the people of Israel and our

partnership is steadfast. The bonds of friendship and cooperation which have existed between

Israel and Rhode Island for the past seventy-one years have enriched the cultural diversity of our

state's tapestry and they are eternal; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this Senate of the State of Rhode Island Providence Plantations

hereby commemorates "Holocaust Remembrance Day" on May 2, 2019. We call upon our fellow

citizens to join us in remembering and honoring the amazing courage and the enormous sacrifices

of all those killed during the Holocaust, and we reaffirm our pledge to work to eradicate bigotry,

prejudice, brutality and injustice through education and vigilance; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That this Senate hereby recognizes the historic significance of the 71st

Anniversary of the reestablishment of the sovereign and independent State of Israel as a

homeland for the Jewish people; and be it further

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     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the United States Holocaust Museum, the

Rhode Island Holocaust Museum, Board of Rabbis of Greater Rhode Island, Mr. Adam

Greenman, President and CEO of the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island and Avi Nevel,

Director, President and CEO of the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative.

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