President Obama Says Yom Kippur a Time for Honesty and Reflection
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
President Barack Obama said Yom Kippur was a time of hope and also of being honest with oneself.
“The Day of Atonement is a time for humility, reflection and repentance, a chance to be honest with ourselves and one another about our shortcomings,” he said in a message sent out about two hours before East Coast candle-lighting. “Yet Yom Kippur is also a day of hope. Through our prayers and through our actions, as individuals and as a community, we can better bridge the realities of our world with the ideals and values we share.”
Obama concluded with the Hebrew phrase wishing others to be signed in the book of life for the coming year — “G’mar Chatimah Tovah.”
A number of candidates for the Republican nod in the presidential election sent out greetings through Twitter, among them Donald Trump, the real estate magnate and front-runner, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
