FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    
Monday, May 04, 2009    

CONTACT: Cullen Schwarz
(202) 225-5802

Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives today approved H. Res 283, a resolution authored by Congressman Gary Peters honoring the life and achievements of Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig.  The House passed the resolution by a voice vote. 

Rabbi Rosenzveig, a Holocaust survivor, founded the nation’s first freestanding Holocaust museum in 1984.  Rosenzveig’s Holocaust Memorial Center was originally housed at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, MI before moving to its current home in Farmington Hills.

“Rabbi Rosenzveig was an extraordinary American who devoted his life to serving others,” said Rep. Peters.  “I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to meet him and I was taken by his wisdom, vision, sincerity and deep sense of caring for all people.  The Holocaust Memorial Center he founded has educated millions of visitors and stands to enlighten future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust.  I believe it is fitting that Congress should honor the life and achievements of such an inspiring person.”

While he was able to escape death during the Holocaust, Rabbi Rosenzveig’s mother, father, brother and sister were killed at the hands of the Nazis.  Rabbi Rosenzveig passed away on December 11, 2008.  Fifty other Members of the House of Representatives, including most of the Michigan Delegation, cosponsored Rep. Peters’ resolution.

Congressman Peters Floor Statement as prepared for delivery, full text of H. Res. 283 and a complete list of the resolution’s cosponsors follow:


____________________________

May 4, 2008

Madame Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 283, a resolution I authored to honor the life, achievements, and contributions of Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig. 

The late Rabbi Rosenzveig, who passed away in December, was a scholar, teacher, Holocaust survivor, and the founder of the nation’s first free-standing Holocaust Memorial Center in Oakland County, Michigan, the County in which I have lived all my life and now have the honor to represent in Congress. 

This resolution is important to the people of Michigan, and it has been sponsored in a thoroughly bipartisan fashion by Reps. Levin, Camp, Dingell, Ehlers, Hoekstra, Upton, Kildee, McCotter, Miller, Rogers, Stupak, and Schauer. 

I would like to commend and thank Chairman Berman, Ranking Member Ros-Lehtinen, and Vice Chairman Ackerman for their sponsorship of this resolution and their leadership in moving it through the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Rabbi Rosenzveig lost his mother, father, brother and sister in the Holocaust before fleeing to Poland, and then the Soviet Union before immigrating to New York City in 1947.  He led his class at the prestigious Yeshiva University in Manhattan and was ordained in 1951 as a Rabbi. 

He served his congregants at Congregation Mt. Sinai in Port Huron, Michigan for decades before leaving the synagogue to devote his entire energy and spirit to the Holocaust Memorial Center of West Bloomfield, Michigan, which was founded in 1984. 

Rabbi Rosenzveig traveled and spoke extensively to raise the awareness and resources needed to grow the Holocaust Memorial Center, allowing the Center to move from its original home in West Bloomfield to a large, state-of-the-art museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan that also houses the Museum of European Heritage and the International Institute of the Righteous.

The Holocaust Memorial Center, which has educated millions of visitors, stands to enlighten future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust and nourish a social consciousness whereby, as Rabbi Rosenzveig  used to say, the “righteous acts of the few become the standard of the many.” 

Rabbi Rosenzveig  was an extraordinary American, who devoted his life to serving others.  I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet him, and I was taken by his wisdom, vision, sincerity, and deep sense of caring for all people.

Please join me in paying tribute to a great teacher, scholar, leader, and the Founder and Director of the Holocaust Memorial Center. 

I am pleased that the House is considering this bipartisan resolution, and I urge my colleagues to support the passage of H. Res. 283.

____________________________

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig, Holocaust survivor, scholar, teacher, and founder of the Nation's first free-standing Holocaust Memorial Center, passed away on December 11, 2008, which corresponds to the 14th of Kislev, 5769 of the Hebrew calendar, and was buried in Jerusalem, Israel;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig was beloved by friends, family, and congregants and is survived by his wife Helen and four children, Martin Rosenzveig, Rabbi Ely Rosenzveig, Judy Rosenzveig, and Adina Novogrodsky, and ten grandchildren;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig was born on November 13, 1920, in Ostrovitz, Poland, to Yente and Eliezer Lippa Rosenzveig;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig was educated in the Jewish cheder and prestigious Bialystok Yeshiva, and studied the laws of his faith concerning the importance of good deeds and social justice, and developed exceptional knowledge of the Talmud, the rabbinic interpretation of Jewish Law;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig endured and bore witness to the horrific atrocities of the Holocaust, the Shoah, and members of his immediate and extended family perished at the hands of the Nazis;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig managed to escape his Nazi persecutors, and fled from Poland to the Soviet Union before immigrating to the United States, settling at first in New York City in 1947;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig attended the world-renowned Yeshiva University in Manhattan and was ordained in 1951 as a rabbi, leader, and teacher in the Jewish community;

Whereas, upon receiving the rabbinic designation, Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig led Congregation Mt. Sinai in Port Huron, Michigan, where he served as spiritual leader until 1993, when he left the pulpit to devote his entire energy and spirit to the Holocaust Memorial Center, a project he had envisioned since his escape from Europe;

Whereas the Holocaust Memorial Center, established in 1984 at the Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan, became the Nation's first freestanding Holocaust Memorial Center;

Whereas the Holocaust Memorial Center is a monument to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, and an educational institution with a mission to teach the lesson of tolerance to future generations, welcoming millions of visitors from around the world wishing to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust in order to prevent such a tragedy from occurring again;

Whereas other Holocaust centers around the country have been built, many modeled on Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig's original Holocaust Memorial Center;

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig traveled and spoke extensively to raise awareness and grow the Holocaust Memorial Center, allowing the Holocaust Memorial Center to move from its original home in West Bloomfield, Michigan, to a large, state-of-the-art museum in Farmington Hills, Michigan, that also houses the Museum of European Heritage and the International Institute of the Righteous;

Whereas it was Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig's vision for the new center to enlighten future generations about the horrors of the Holocaust and nourish a social consciousness whereby the `righteous acts of the few become the standard of the many'; and

Whereas Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig succeeded in providing the tools necessary for the message of `Never Again' to be understood by future generations: Now, therefore, be it


Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) mourns the passing of Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig and pauses to remember the 6,000,000 Jews killed in the Holocaust and the more than 11,000,000 people murdered in World War II; and

(2) honors the life and accomplishments of Rabbi Charles H. Rosenzveig as a scholar, teacher, rabbi, and Founder and Director of the Holocaust Memorial Center.

____________________________


Cosponsors of H. Res. 283:

Rep Ackerman, Gary L. [NY-5]
Rep Adler, John H. [NJ-3]
Rep Altmire, Jason [PA-4]
Rep Berkley, Shelley [NV-1]
Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28]
Rep Camp, Dave [MI-4]
Rep Cohen, Steve [TN-9]
Rep Connolly, Gerald E. "Gerry" [VA-11]
Rep Crowley, Joseph [NY-7]
Rep Dahlkemper, Kathleen A. [PA-3]
Rep Dingell, John D. [MI-15]
Rep Ehlers, Vernon J. [MI-3]
Rep Ellison, Keith [MN-5]
Rep Filner, Bob [CA-51]
Rep Giffords, Gabrielle [AZ-8]
Rep Grayson, Alan [FL-8]
Rep Green, Al [TX-9]
Rep Harman, Jane [CA-36]
Rep Hastings, Alcee L. [FL-23]
Rep Hodes, Paul W. [NH-2]
Rep Hoekstra, Peter [MI-2]
Rep Holt, Rush D. [NJ-12]
Rep Kagen, Steve [WI-8]
Rep Kildee, Dale E. [MI-5]
Rep Kilroy, Mary Jo [OH-15]
Rep Kirk, Mark Steven [IL-10]
Rep Klein, Ron [FL-22]
Rep Lamborn, Doug [CO-5]
Rep Levin, Sander M. [MI-12]
Rep Lowey, Nita M. [NY-18]
Rep McCotter, Thaddeus G. [MI-11]
Rep Miller, Brad [NC-13]
Rep Miller, Candice S. [MI-10]
Rep Moore, Dennis [KS-3]
Rep Murphy, Christopher S. [CT-5]
Rep Nadler, Jerrold [NY-8]
Rep Polis, Jared [CO-2]
Rep Rogers, Mike J. [MI-8]
Rep Ros-Lehtinen, Ileana [FL-18]
Rep Schakowsky, Janice D. [IL-9]
Rep Schauer, Mark H. [MI-7]
Rep Schiff, Adam B. [CA-29]
Rep Sestak, Joe [PA-7]
Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27]
Rep Stupak, Bart [MI-1]
Rep Upton, Fred [MI-6]
Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20]
Rep Waxman, Henry A. [CA-30]
Rep Wexler, Robert [FL-19]
Rep Yarmuth, John A. [KY-3]