White House Drops Stein from Proclamation
The White House removed a reference to Gertrude Stein from its Jewish Heritage Month proclamation.
Stein – along with Aaron Copland, Albert Einstein and Louis Brandeis – were deleted from the proclamation sent out Wednesday night.
The proclamation issued Tuesday had listed the four as Jews who “have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life.”
Stein, a poet, arts critic and literary theorist, was Jewish, but also notoriously flirted with Nazi ideology while living in France in the 1940s.
A White House spokesman, Matt Lehrich, said the original version was sent out in error.
The proclamation omits the standard language for dating such documents, “the year of our Lord,” apparently out of deference by the Obama White House to Jewish sensibilities.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.