[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2274-S2275]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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            REGARDING THE COURAGE OF MRS. DEVORAH HALBERSTAM

 Mr. D'AMATO. Mr. President, I rise today to present the 
remarks of a courageous woman, Devorah Halberstam, whose son Ari was 
brutally murdered by Rashid Baz on March 1, 1994, in a cowardly act of 
terrorism on the Brooklyn Bridge.
  Mrs. Halberstam's statement before New York State Supreme Court 
Justice Harold Rothwax on January 18, 1995, took place before the 
sentencing of Rashid Baz, who subsequently received 141 years in prison 
for a single count of second-degree murder, 14 counts of attempted 
murder in the second-degree, and one count of criminal use of a firearm 
in the first-degree.
  Mr. President, what happened that day on the Brooklyn Bridge was 
nothing less than an act of terrorism and we should call it just that. 
Ari Halberstam was murdered for one reason: He was a Jew.
  In her piognant statement before the court, Mrs. Halberstam relates a 
tearful plea that she hopes that what happened to her and her family, 
never happen to any other family. Her statement is a powerful one and I 
urge my colleagues to read it so that they may gain a greater insight 
into the sorrow and grief suffered by a woman whose son was taken from 
her in an act of terrorism.
  Mr. President, I ask that the text of Mrs. Halberstam's statement be 
included in the Record following the conclusion of my remarks.
  The statement follows:
Statement by Mrs. Devorah Halberstam Before State Supreme Court Justice 
                    Harold Rothwax, January 18, 1994

       Your Honor: Fourteen boys testified before this Court. 
     Fourteen very special young men whose pure and innocent lives 
     are dedicated to the betterment of our world. Fourteen 
     adolescents whose own lives were forever changes on the 
     Brooklyn Bridge less than a year ago on March 1st.
       But the youngest of the students--the fifteenth--his voice 
     was silent. And will remain silent forever.
       Ari's blue eyes were deep as the ocean--windows to a soul 
     in which I swam and energized myself every day of his 16 
     brief years.
       A soul who feared nothing but the Almighty, whose humility 
     was an inspiration, whose days and nights were testimony to 
     the heights of human endeavor and aspiration.
       A soul hand-picked by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and the Rebbe's 
     wife, to serve as their surrogate child from earliest 
     infancy, to be surrounded by their holiness and kindness and 
     universal love.
       A gem of a human being who combined the rigors of Chassidic 
     life with its long days of study, with a grace on the 
     basketball court that was star quality. A mere child who 
     would jump at the opportunity--and they were numerous--to 
     relinquish his own bed to a tired guest. A prince of a boy 
     who was generous to a fault with his time--always ready to 
     listen to a troubled friend.
       But above all he loved his family, especially his sisters 
     and brothers.
       That, your honor, was my son Ari.
       That, your honor is the witness who could not be here to 
     testify.
       Which is why I have gathered what fragments are left of my 
     energy and sanity, your honor, to address this court today.
       On May 6, 1977, I was blessed and overjoyed as my first 
     born son Ari came into this world.
       On March 1, 1994 I was there at his side watching as the 
     final color of life ebbed from his dying face. And on that 
     day, I too died your honor. And my husband.
       Our lives will never be the same. Yes, my life has been 
     forever shattered by the hot bullet released by Rashid Baz's 
     cold and calculating and viciously Jew-hating hand.
       Your honor, we are compelled to look at the shocking and 
     outrageous events that are going on in our world.
       Several weeks ago, Islamic terrorists highjacked a French 
     airliner with nearly 200 passengers. Their intent was to 
     explode the jet in the heart of Paris in a suicide mission 
     that would have killed thousands.
       Their mission was not the complete success they had hoped 
     for--instead of thousands, only five innocent civilians were 
     actually murdered.
       That very week, an Islamic terrorist--explosives strapped 
     to his body--detonated himself beside a crowded public bus in 
     the heart of Jerusalem. His mission was not the complete 
     success he had hoped for--because only one person was 
     seriously wounded, four others less seriously. The 50 
     passengers on the target bus were miraculously unharmed.
       Two years ago, Islamic terrorists attempted to detonate the 
     World Trade Center hoping to collapse a 110 story building 
     and kill tens of thousands of our fellow Americans.
       Their mission was not the complete success they had hoped 
     for--because only 6 were actually killed and dozens more 
     wounded.
       On March 1st of last year an Islamic terrorist armed with 
     an arsenal of sophisticated weapons stalked a van carrying 15 
     Rabbinical students on the Brooklyn Bridge with the intent to 
     kill them all. His mission was not the complete success he 
     had hoped for--because only one of the fifteen was killed--
     And that as you know, was my precious son Ari.
       Your honor. The civilized world cannot afford ``failures'' 
     like these.
       Each day, innocent people--men, women and children--are 
     being targeted in the cross hairs of these mass murderers who 
     would kill and wound indiscriminately, not only others, but 
     even themselves.
       They murder with the sanction and participation of 
     governments in Teheran and 
     [[Page S2275]] Baghdad, Damascus, Lebanon, Tripoli and 
     Khartoum. Governments whose representatives roam our streets 
     freely. Whose diplomatic pouches--laden with plastic 
     explosives and conventional weapons--are inviolate. Whose 
     treacherous plans sews destruction, mayhem and terror in the 
     hearts of civilized people everywhere.
       They murder with the blessing of fanatical religious 
     leaders--some of whom are guests in this great land.
       They murder in the name of a god they call ``Allah the 
     Merciful.''
       These killers are a disgrace to all people of faith, 
     including the many millions of their own coreligionists who 
     pray for peace in their hearts but dare not speak peace 
     because they fear for their lives.
       These murderers respect no territorial boundaries. They 
     obey no law. They view anybody and everybody, but especially 
     Jews, as fair game. They believe--not without justification--
     the more blood they shed the more ready the world will be to 
     capitulate to their nefarious and bloodthirsty aims.
       A cowardly world hands down token sentences to those who 
     are apprehended. Spineless western governments discreetly 
     free some of the most wanton mass killers--releasing them 
     into the hands of the very fundamentalist, dictatorships and 
     theocracies which dispatched them in the first place.
       They do this in order to improve their balance of trade, or 
     worse yet, as a payoff, selfishly and foolishly hoping to 
     forestall further acts of terrorism against their own people 
     and on their own territory. This, your honor, is the world we 
     live in. And the time has come to say, ``Enough, we won't 
     take it anymore.''
       I have addressed you on behalf of a civilized world which 
     will be further threatened, further
      degraded, and further destabilized if this killer gets 
     anything less than the maximum sentence you can give.
       The man you will sentence today, Rashid Baz, killed my 
     baby. And robbed Nochum Sossonkin of his youth. And he felt 
     immune and invincible because the world's track record in 
     dealing with his kind is an embarrassment to all civilized 
     and justice-loving people.
       The jury which declared this murderer guilty showed 
     incredible personal courage in reaching its verdict. Because 
     the community of Islamic terrorists is as vindictive as it is 
     sadistic.
       Yes, Rashid Baz's mission on the Brooklyn Bridge was a 
     failure. Because 14 of his 15 intended victims are still 
     alive.
       But for me, my husband, my aged parents, and my four other 
     children--as for the mothers and fathers and grandparents and 
     sisters and brothers and sons and daughters of the other 
     murder victims from those other ``failures'' I mentioned 
     before--his mission was a success.
       For we will never see our Ari again * * * For I will never 
     see my tall, beautiful, kind, scholarly, charming, friendly 
     16 year old son grow to maturity * * * For my younger 
     children will never again have the loving, compassionate 
     guidance of the older brother they adored * * * For my 
     husband and I will never see the grandchildren we had 
     expected.
       And the generations upon generations of descendants that 
     were to have come from Ari will never be--generations that 
     were meant to replace and replenish the catastrophic loss of 
     Jewish life that is our legacy from the Holocaust.
       On March 1st Rashid Baz murdered Ari. But he also sentenced 
     me and my family to a lifetime of mourning. To an endless 
     series of sleepless nights. To a wound which can never heal. 
     To a living death which chips away at us, measured in the 
     slow cadence of endless seconds * * * to a limbo of 
     joylessness which will end only when we ourselves are 
     reunited with Ari.
       Indeed, there is nothing that can happen here today, 
     nothing you or anyone else can do to bring Ari back. There is 
     no way to give me back all those years of joy, love and 
     worry. There is no sentence that you can give Baz for my 
     murdered heart or for the security that was robbed from the 
     lives of my children and replaced instead with cobrays, 
     glocks and terror.
       What can you say to Ari's sister Sara who grew up side by 
     side with him and was her best friend throughout her life?
       Or Chanie, his sister who fears going into any taxicab.
       Or Mendy, Ari's brother, who looked up to Ari as his mentor 
     and protector. And who lost his older brother on the day of 
     his birthday.
       Or Ari's four year old brother, who keeps asking me when 
     Ari will be back. And whose last prayer at night is I love 
     you Ari with my whole heart please come back home.
       Your honor, our pain is too great to bear. We long for our 
     son constantly. We listen for his footsteps and voice in hour 
     home.
       Yet life must go on, and justice, the inadequate justice 
     that humans can mete out, must be done.
       And now, your honor, it is your responsibility to show 
     courage, and demonstrate that we in America are not cowards. 
     That we do not capitulate to the blackmail of terrorism. That 
     we value life and liberty. That those who would presume on 
     American hospitality and freedom in order to bring 
     civilization to its knees will find no refuge in this land. 
     And that here, at least justice will prevail, and this cold 
     blooded killer will never see the light of freedom again so 
     long as he lives.
       There is no death sentence in New York State. If there 
     were, I would surely be tempted to ask for it.
       Because death would send a message to the world that 
     America knows how to deal with terror.
       And death, too, might have brought a measure of finality to 
     the horror me and my family have to live with.
       But death, unfortunately, is not an option.
       Which is why I beseech you, your honor, from a heart filled 
     with pain and anguish, in the name of civilization and the 
     values we hold dear, in memory of my son, and out of basic 
     consideration for me and my family--sentence Rashid Baz to 
     the very same sentence to which he sentenced us--namely, that 
     not a day, not an hour, not a minute or a second of his life 
     should go by without him being reminded of what he has done.
       Remorse? The only remorse he has is over his faulty aim, 
     and the fact that his mission was not completed entirely.
       This murderer must live and die behind bars and barbed 
     wire. He must spend the remainder of his natural life caged 
     like the remorseless creature that he is. Deprived of any of 
     the rights or freedoms he mocks. Separated from any 
     opportunity to continue in his ways. Reduced to a number in 
     the impersonal hell of prison. Consigned to a life of living 
     death until God takes him and renders the eternal justice 
     which we on earth cannot.
       Your honor, this is the least you can do. Unfortunately, it 
     is also the most.
       Thank you.
       

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