2020 -- H 7316 | |
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LC004112 | |
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STATE OF RHODE ISLAND | |
IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY | |
JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2020 | |
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H O U S E R E S O L U T I O N | |
COMMEMORATING "INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY" ON | |
JANUARY 27, 2020 | |
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Introduced By: Representatives Ackerman, Knight, Kislak, Mattiello, and Shekarchi | |
Date Introduced: January 28, 2020 | |
Referred To: House read and passed | |
1 | WHEREAS, Seventy-five years ago, Soviet forces and shortly thereafter, other Allied |
2 | forces, liberated Auschwitz and other concentration camps, liberating thousands of suffering and |
3 | starving prisoners; and |
4 | WHEREAS, Holocaust is the term used to refer to the period in world history from 1933 |
5 | to 1945, before and during World War II, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazis systematically and |
6 | barbarically persecuted and murdered nearly six million Jews and another five million non-Jews |
7 | throughout Europe because they were perceived to be "racially inferior" and "life unworthy of |
8 | life"; and |
9 | WHEREAS, The infamous and brutal killing grounds of Auschwitz, Buchenwald, |
10 | Dachau and Belson, today house the unnatural quiet and ghostly calm of somber rows of sanitized |
11 | barracks and rusting ovens, and stand as speechless memorials to the six million Jews and eleven |
12 | million total victims who succumbed to the deliberate Nazi program of genocide that was the |
13 | Holocaust; and |
14 | WHEREAS, The white nationalist and neo-Nazi messages of racial, ethnic, and social |
15 | intolerance has led to senseless acts of violence that continue to terrorize and marginalize |
16 | members of racial and religious minority communities; and |
17 | WHEREAS, Currently, across our nation, anti-Semitic hate crimes are rising. Between |
18 | 2016 and 2017, there was an increase of 57 percent nationally, the largest single-year record. In |
19 | Rhode Island, the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes also rose from zero in 2014 and 2015 to |
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1 | nine in 2016 and 2017; and |
2 | WHEREAS, Anti-Semitic malevolent attacks are not only an affront to the more than |
3 | 16,000 members of the Jewish faith living in Rhode Island, they are an assault on the humanity of |
4 | all the people in our State; and |
5 | WHEREAS, In the words of famed writer Elie Wiesel, "There may be times when we are |
6 | powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest." Rhode |
7 | Islanders and people of all nations must take the time to remember the millions of men, women |
8 | and children who were slaughtered simply because of their beliefs and their heritage, or their |
9 | strengths or their frailties, and we must firmly avow that the atrocities of the Holocaust will never |
10 | be repeated; now, therefore be it |
11 | RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island Providence |
12 | Plantations hereby commemorates "International Holocaust Remembrance Day" on January 27, |
13 | 2020. We call upon our fellow citizens to join us in remembering and honoring the amazing |
14 | courage and the enormous sacrifices of all those killed during the Holocaust. We moreover |
15 | reaffirm our pledge to work to eradicate bigotry, prejudice, brutality and injustice through |
16 | education and vigilance and we stand united in rejecting and condemning vile and intolerable acts |
17 | of anti-Semitism and hatred; and be it further |
18 | RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to |
19 | transmit duly certified copies of this resolution to the United States Holocaust Museum, the |
20 | Rhode Island Holocaust Museum, the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island, the Jewish |
21 | Community Center of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Israel Collaborative. |
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