“I join in wishing all who are celebrating Rosh Hashanah a very sweet new year for 5780.  As families gather to mark this season of transition, I hope it will usher in a year of joy, new beginnings, and new opportunities.  To all those serving in uniform and celebrating on military installations at home and overseas, I pray that this new year will be one of safety and success.    “Recently, the world learned the extraordinary story of a shofar secretly used on Rosh Hashanah by those imprisoned in Auschwitz.  Risking their lives, detainees in the Nazi death camp gathered as best they could out of earshot of guards to blow the ram’s horn and sound the call of freedom and renewal.  Few of those present expected to see the end of the new year ushered in by the shofar’s blast.  Few of them would.  Nevertheless, they preceded with tradition, certain in their faith that no evil could silence the Jewish people’s yearning for survival and determination to carry on into the next year, and the next one, and every year to follow.    “As we look to the year ahead, let us be inspired by their courage and persistence in the face of adversity.  May the echoing call of the shofar stir us all to speak up wherever intolerance, inequality, and injustice have been met by deafening silence.  Let us resolve as Americans to strive for renewal and to secure freedom, peace, and justice at home and throughout the world.  ‘Shana Tova U’Metuka.’”