Jewish American Heritage Month
in May recognizes Jewish contributions to American culture, history, military, science, government, and more.
In 2006, President George W. Bush . 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 威尼斯人娱乐场, December 14, 2018, (威尼斯人娱乐场 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. ()
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,)
Hester Street, on the Lower East Side of New York City (ca. 1903), housed a sizable community of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. ()
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. ()
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. ()
Soldiers in the American Expeditionary Force sit down for a Passover seder in Paris, France, hosted by the Jewish Welfare Board, April 1919. ()
The Young Women's Hebrew Association in New York City hosted 鈥淚nformal Entertaining鈥 for American soldiers and sailors, ca. 1918 ()
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. ()
Bob Dylan and Joan Baez perform at the Civil Rights March on Washington, DC, August 28, 1963. ()
Barbara Walters and President Gerald R. Ford prior to an interview at the New York Hilton in New York City. ()
Videos
Selected Records
to become a U.S. citizen
when he was working as a consultant to the United States Government during World War II
about the possible development of 鈥渁n extremely powerful new type of bomb鈥 by the Germans.
(Petition from the Patriotic League for Jewish Girls)
: a 1969 Defense Department motion picture about the responsibilities and value of Jewish lay leadership in the armed forces
Baseball player Hank Greenberg鈥檚 and
World War I poster in Yiddish: