Conference of Jewish Affairs spokesman Rabbi Aryeh Spero made the following statement today:
“Today President Trump truly made Religious Freedom Day a day of celebration for those communities and individuals who live a religious life. In a long-needed and bold gesture, the President leveled the playing field so that people of faith are no longer treated as second-class citizens by our public institutions.
“There can be no doubt that the eight years of the previous administration instituted orders and promoted an attitude that purposely made people of faith uncomfortable in our public institutions, including schools, and promoted a sense that religious people were outside the mainstream and harmful to general society. It was a low point in our nation’s history.
“There are many concrete demonstrations in today’s guidelines and announcements by President Trump that will, thank God, dramatically change the atmosphere and resurrect the religious freedom upon which this country was founded. The biblical life and the values and manners that derive therefrom are and have been the most vital feature in shaping the unique American society and opportunities from which we continually receive blessing.
“More than any president in my lifetime, President Trump has fulfilled his campaign pledges and done so with clarity, full heart, and in a manner filled with conviction and designed for effectiveness.“