Lesson on Legacy of Religious Freedom at Walt Whitman High School

LESSON ON LEGACY

OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AT

WALT WHITMAN HIGH SCHOOL

(Bethesda, MD) Three students at Walt Whitman High School received awards from Mrs. Joy Ammerman on Friday, March 11, 2011, for writing prize-winning essays in the inaugural Ammerman Essay Competition. Jacob Rosenblum, Kaiwei L. Hsu and Amandine C. Roche received their awards at the School’s Diversity Celebration Assemblies. The competition was sponsored by the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom and funded through the generosity of the Ammerman Family Foundation.

The Ammerman Essay Competition focused on the contemporary relevance of a famous letter that George Washington wrote to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island of 1790. In one of the most significant statements of religious freedom ever penned, our first president promised that the United States would be a nation that “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance,” and that the exercise of religion is “an inherent natural right.” These principles would, a year later, find expression in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

The George Washington Letter essay contest was begun in 1992 and has been expanded nationally in partnership with other educational organizations. The essay contest was conducted this year at Walt Whitman High School for the first time. The students competing were tenth-grade Advanced Placement NSL Government students.

Mrs. Joy Ammerman and her late husband, Dr. Bruce Ammerman, were inspired by our first president’s advocacy of the United States as a country with a new, inclusive philosophy and his stirring words: “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.” Mrs. Ammerman, who taught elementary school for many years, is gratified that she can honor the memory of her husband and their shared interest in George Washington through this essay contest. “If we can teach the principles expressed in this remarkable letter, we can inspire our students to safeguard our cherished freedom of religion and never take it for granted.”

Founded and chaired by former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark John L. Loeb Jr., the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom supports efforts to educate students about religious liberty and separation of church and state through an exploration of Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, RI of 1790. For more information about the Institute and this historic letter, see the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom’s website, www.GWIRF.org.

ShesDaily.com

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