White House Revises Jewish Heritage Proclamation to Nix Nazi Sympathizer

The White House just issued a revised version of yesterday’s presidential proclamation declaring May to be Jewish American Heritage Month.

A comparison of the two reveals the change. “From Aaron Copland to Albert Einstein, Gertrude Stein to Justice Louis Brandeis, generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life,” the May 1 version reads.

The revised proclamation this evening reads, “Generations of Jewish Americans have brought to bear some of our country’s greatest achievements and forever enriched our national life,” omitting all of the names.

Yesterday, under pressure from officials and patrons, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its “The Steins Collect” exhibition will include a few sentences about Stein’s Nazi sympathies.

“We welcome the decision by The Met to include information on Gertrude Stein’s collaborationist past and her support for Hitler,” said Ron Meier, ADL New York Regional Director. “Her troubling ideology was inextricably linked to her art collection, and therefore it is appropriate to make reference to it.”

Historians have noted that Stein was a supporter of the Vichy regime, the ADL added, and in 1938 she nominated Adolf Hitler as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.