[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2740 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2740

 To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Michoel Ber 
  Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 25, 2017

Ms. Velazquez (for herself and Mr. Mast) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Michoel Ber 
  Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl 
Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl was born in Hungary on 
        October 25, 1903, later moving to Slovakia to study under Rabbi 
        Shumel Dvoid Ungar in Nitra.
            (2) During his time in Nitra, he quickly became a senior 
        figure within the local Jewish community and Yeshiva.
            (3) Weissmandl was responsible for some of the daring 
        efforts to save the Jewish people of Slovakia from the 
        Holocaust, which include the establishment of a ``Working 
        Group'', an underground organization that raised funds to 
        negotiate ransom with German and Slovakian officials in order 
        to delay mass deportations.
            (4) During the Nazi regime, Weissmandl used his contacts 
        from England to obtain visas, becoming one of the first to 
        actively protect people of Jewish ancestry in Europe.
            (5) Weissmandl also wrote telegrams to generate awareness 
        of the Jewish people's plight and encouraged other strategic 
        approaches to stop the Holocaust, including the bombing of 
        railroad tunnels to prevent the transportation of persons to 
        concentration camps.
            (6) Weissmandl established a Working Group--a wide variety 
        of people from different political and ideological spectrums--
        whose common goal was to save people from the ``Final 
        Solution''.
            (7) The Working Group was one of the first to document in 
        writing the accounts of Auschwitz Escapees in a document widely 
        referred to as the ``Auschwitz Protocols''.
            (8) Weissmandl himself later translated the initial 
        documentation from German to Hebrew and included a widely known 
        addendum that pleaded for action.
            (9) Weissmandl wrote the first known appeal for the use of 
        Allied air resources to disrupt the Holocaust.
            (10) In 1942 when Slovakia started deportation for 
        ``resettlement'', Rabbi Weissmandl was the first to inform the 
        Working Group that people were being murdered and not sent to 
        work as originally claimed.
            (11) Rabbi Weissmandl also played an instrumental role in 
        Solomon Schoenfeld Kindertransport rescue, helping save 
        hundreds of lives.
            (12) Rabbi Weissmandl came to America and in 1945 
        immediately got to work to establish a home and Yeshiva for 
        Holocaust survivors. The Yeshiva of Nitra he established in 
        Mount Kisco, New York, was the first Yeshiva campus in America 
        and became and example that other institutions followed.
            (13) Rabbi Weissmandl has significantly influenced the 
        flourishing communities of Talmudic scholars in Brooklyn, New 
        York, and generally across the United States.

SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.

    (a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of 
Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall make 
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of Congress, 
of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl 
in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II.
    (b) Participation by Weissmandl Committee.--For the purpose of the 
presentation referred to in subsection (a), the Speaker and President 
pro tempore shall ensure that the Weissmandl Committee may accept the 
medal on behalf of Michoel Ber Weissmandl.
    (c) Design and Striking.--For the purpose of the presentation 
referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury 
(hereinafter in this Act referred to as the ``Secretary'') shall strike 
a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be 
determined by the Secretary.
    (d) Transfer of Medal After Presentation.--Following the 
presentation of the gold medal in honor of Michoel Ber Weissmandl under 
subsection (a), the gold medal shall be given to Samuel Dovid 
Weissmandl or, should he not be present, to Rabbi Menachem Meir 
Weissmandl.

SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS.

    Under such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, the 
Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold medal 
struck pursuant to section 2 at a price sufficient to cover the cost of 
the bronze medals (including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, 
and overhead expenses) and the cost of the gold medal.

SEC. 5. NATIONAL MEDAL.

    (a) National Medal.--The gold medal struck under this Act is a 
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States 
Code.
    (b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 5136 of 
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be 
considered to be numismatic items.
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