Education and Sharing Day is a day made by the United States Congress in honor of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson the Lubavitcher Rebbe's (1902-1994) efforts for education and sharing for Jews and non-Jews alike. During his lifetime the Rabbi opened scores of centers of education called "Chabad Houses". The day was inaugurated April 18, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter and has since been proclaimed, by the presiding President, annually on the Jewish birthday of Menachem Mendel Schneerson (11 Nissan). In 2009 it was marked on April 5.
President George W. Bush wrote in his proclamation on Education and Sharing Day 2007:
"Education and Sharing Day honors the legacy of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson and emphasizes our commitment to teach the next generation of Americans the values that make our country strong. The Lubavitcher Rabbi believed that society should 'make a new commitment to kindness,' and he helped to establish education and outreach centers offering social service programs and humanitarian aid around the world."
President Barack Obama wrote in his proclamation on Education & Sharing Day 2009:
"Few have better understood or more successfully promoted these ideas than Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who emphasized the importance of education and good character. Through the establishment of educational and social service institutions across the country and the world, Rabbi Schneerson sought to empower young people and inspire individuals of all ages. On this day, we raise his call anew."
The 1991 bill described the Noahide Laws as the "ethical values and principles which are the basis of civilized society and upon which our great Nation was founded".
President George W. Bush called upon "government officials, educators, volunteers, and all the people of the United States to reach out to young people and work to create a better, brighter, and more hopeful future for all."
Famous quotes containing the words education, sharing and/or day:
“A two-year-old can be taught to curb his aggressions completely if the parents employ strong enough methods, but the achievement of such control at an early age may be bought at a price which few parents today would be willing to pay. The slow education for control demands much more parental time and patience at the beginning, but the child who learns control in this way will be the child who acquires healthy self-discipline later.”
—Selma H. Fraiberg (20th century)
“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
—Bible: New Testament, Philippians 2:1-2.
“They who have been bred in the school of politics fail now and always to face the facts. Their measures are half measures and makeshifts merely. They put off the day of settlement, and meanwhile the debt accumulates.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)