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    "localId": "7344162",
    "label": "Remarks of the Vice President at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Synagogue Council of America, Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island [Speeches by Others]",
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    "title": "Remarks of the Vice President at the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Synagogue Council of America, Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island [Speeches by Others]",
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    "ocrText": "Digitized from Box 26 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library\nFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\nSUNDAY, MAY 23, 1976\nOffice of the Vice President\n(Newport, Rhode Island)\nREMARKS OF THE VICE PRESIDENT\nAT THE\nFIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SYNAGOGUE COUNCIL OF AMERICA\nTOURO SYNAGOGUE\nNEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND\n(AT 5:23 P.M. EDT)\nAmbassador Linowitz, thank you very much. Chairman\nArthur Burns, Senator Pell, Rabbi Lookstein, Rabbi Seigman,\nRabbi Lewis, and thank you Roberta Peters for your beautiful\nrenditions, your excellencies, members and friends of the\nTouro Synagogue, as a descendant of Roger Williams, I thank\nyou for the honor and the privilege of allowing me to\nparticipate in this historic gathering, which is one of the\nhigh points of the Bicentennial celebration for our Nation.\nTo stand in the simple beauty of this historic temple\nis to return to the very roots of our Nation. Indeed, there\nwas a Touro Synagogue before there was a United States of\nAmerica.\nAnd Jewish families lived and worshipped here in\nRhode Island over a century before the synagogue was\ncompleted. They chose Rhode Island with good reason, because\nthe founders of this colony had guaranteed freedom of religion.\nThose early Jewish settlers made a decision shared by so many\nmillions of immigrants of all faiths who arrived on those\nshores over the past two centuries. Their loyalty was to the\nnew land, while, at the same time, they determined to remain\nfirm in their religious beliefs.\nNowhere has our Nation's commitment to religious\nand personal liberty been voiced more eloquently than in the\nletter which George Washington wrote to the congregation of\nTouro Synagogue, and which Sol Linowitz read so beautifully\nand with such feeling, \"To bigotry, no sanction. To persecution,\nno assistance.\"\nThis freedom which our forefathers sought in the new\nworld benefitted both the people who found it and the land\nwhich extended it. For not only did the openness of American\nsociety offer opportunity for a new life to the poor, the\noppressed and the persecuted, but those who came here, and\ntheir children after them, gave new life to this Nation.\nAs it says in the dreams of the Hebrew prophets, we have been\nenriched by the gathering of the exiles from all over the\nworld.\nThe Jewish experience in America is a particularly\nvivid illustration of opportunity for the individual being\ntranslated into betterment for all. We could not subtract\nthe Jewish contribution from American life without impoverishing\nour science, our literature, our art, our commerce, our law,\nand, indeed, without vastly diminishing America. The Jewish\ncontribution to the American experience is beyond calculation,\nand out of all proportion to the numbers of Jewish Americans\ninvolved.\nMORE\nPage 2\nToday, I would like to discuss the American moral\nheritage which created this environment for individual fulfill-\nment which led, in turn, to our Nation's unmatched achievement.\nThe spiritual and religious forces which inspired our Founding\nFathers and shaped life in America from its very beginning.\nThese forces inspired the Declaration of Independence and the\nConstitution of the United States.\nAnd, most important of all, these spiritual and\nreligious forces have continued to shape the American\ncharacter to this day, a character dominated by such qualities\nas respect for the dignity of the individual, kindness,\ngenerosity, neighborliness, equality of opportunity, equality\nbefore the law, a restless energy, a willingness to take risks,\nand faith, hope and love. As the Old Testament says, \"The\ngreatest of these is love.\" The contributions of America\nto religious freedom are as monumental as its contributions\nto political liberty and economic freedom.\nSettled by people of many faiths, the Church of\nEngland, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists, Jews, Huguenots,\nQuakers and many others, Americans through trial and experience\ndeveloped not alone an understanding, but a mutual respect\nof one faith for another. And it is this framework of\ndiversity within unity, of people of so many faiths, which\nhas been the greatest source of America's strength and\nvitality.\nLife for our forebears in early America was rugged.\nIn this testing environment, there developed a belief not alone\nin individual rights but an equally firm conviction of\nindividual responsibility. Survival depended upon\nindividuals shouldering their responsibilities fully as\nmuch as asserting their ambitions and employing their energies\nin their own ways. The individual was held responsible for\nhis or her actions. They were expected to contribute to\nthe community.\nIn young America in struggling communities, people's\nmoral and religious assertions were judged by their performance.\nFor his acts, the individual was answerable to himself,\nto his God and his community. He could take no refuge in\nblaming others or in blaming society for his actions. He\nexpected to suffer the consequences of his own behavior.\nThis is the unique essence of American life and character.\nToday, the basic principles of America's founding\nand its growth, its dedication to human dignity, the spiritual\nnature of man, its trust in free individuals taking\nresponsibility for their actions, are being seriously\nchallenged. Totalitarian socialist societies have developed\nwhich ignore the concept of man as a spiritual human being.\nThey repress personal liberty and they forbid religious\nfreedom. They deny individual economic freedom.\nIn the present world, centrally-controlled, Marxist\npower is on the march throughout the world, supported by\nsubversion, so-called wars of liberation and growing military\npower. Unfortunately, in this period, we have seen some\nstriking failures of moral example both in public and private\nlife here at home. It is dangerous. Uncorrected, it can\nweaken the moral fiber of our society.\nMORE\nPage 3\nThere is a growing tendency in our times to excuse\nimmoral conduct because we think we understand the forces that\nproduced it. One suspects there is a connection between this\nkind of thinking and the movement away from the basic American\ntenet of individual responsibility for one's life and actions.\nEvery society in the'history of man has had its\nstrengths and its weaknesses. But no society can endure for\nlong by allowing criminals to escape penalties for their\ncrimes by reference to some vague theory or concept of a\ncollective guilt, or personal stress, or because it is alleged\nthat \"everyone does it.\"\nIt is time for all of us, as individual American\ncitizens, each in the discharge of our several responsibilities,\nto reaffirm the basic concepts that a man's moral and religious\nassertions are judged by his performance and that he is\nanswerable for his acts to himself, to his God and to his\ncommunity. For only in this way are we going to preserve our\nfree society, its values, its opportunities, its blessings.\nEach of us, as an individual American, must return to the\nbasic concept of individual responsibility for our own acts\nupon which this society was founded.\nYour faith, the teachings of Judaism, is based on\na moral vision of mankind, on a reverence for individual\nuniqueness and individual dignity. Judaism teaches, too,\nthat individual dignity and freedom must be accompanied by\nan acceptance of moral responsibility on the part of the\nindividual.\nThese convictions are so much in keeping with the\nmoral philosophy of our Nation's Founding Fathers that it is\nhardly surprising that Jewish Americans have made such an\nenormous contribution to America's emergence as the greatest,\nfreest Nation on earth.\nAmerica is grateful for your spiritual heritage\nand for those priceless contributions which you have made\nthrough two centuries of American nationhood. As those who\nworshipped here in Touro Synagogue heard in 1776, what all\nAmericans heard in that fateful year still rings with relevance\ntoday.\nThe men of the Revolution declared their commitment\nto human dignity in these unforgettable words: \"With a firm\nreliance on the protection of divine Providence we mutually\npledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred\nhonor.\" Dare we do less today? I think not.\nThank you.\nEND\n(AT 5:35 P.M. EDT)"
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