On April 13, 2023, we marked the 280th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s birth with a ceremony and celebration—complete with a performance from the Old Line Fife and Drum Corps—on the West Lawn.

Our featured speaker was Jason Rezaian, the 2023 recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership. Rezaian is an award-winning Iranian American writer and journalist at the Washington Post. Rezaian began work as the Post’s Bureau Chief in Tehran, Iran in 2012 before his arrest in 2014 on alleged charges of espionage. Freed after 544 days of imprisonment and torture, Rezaian has since championed the stories of those who fight for freedom and the liberty of others.