[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 99 (Friday, June 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO IRWIN WEINBERG

                                 ______


                         HON. PAUL E. KANJORSKI

                             of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 16, 1995

  Mr. KANJORSKI. Mr. Speaker, this summer Irwin Weinberg of Wilkes-
Barre, PA, an internationally known stamp collector and dealer, is 
celebrating 50 years in philately. At one point in his splendid career 
he owned the most expensive stamp in the world, the British Guiana one-
cent magenta of 1856. He toured the world to exhibit this stamp and 
later sold it for a record setting sum. Christies in New York regularly 
asks him to provide stamps for consignment to enhance certain of their 
auctions. This is a man who has reached the highest level of success in 
his field.
  But it is not his unparalleled success in philately that I as his 
Congressman and friend would like to celebrate today. It is the 
philosophy of this man that I commend you, the philosophy of this 
constituent who with his wife, Jean, lives in Kingston, PA, a town 
neighboring mine.
  In this day when to call oneself a liberal is to be under attack from 
many sides, when even the term itself is used as an epithet, Irwin 
Weinberg is proud to call himself a constitutional liberal. Since 
childhood he has been interested in liberal causes, especially civil 
rights. I had the honor of taking him as my guest to the White House to 
meet Nelson Mandela, the great liberator of South Africa, a man whom 
Irwin counts along with Martin Luther King and Ghandi, as his hero.
  As Irwin describes himself, being a constitutional liberal means 
coupling the defense of human rights as understood by President John 
Kennedy with the conservative strictures of the Ten Commandments, the 
Sermon on the Mount, and the American Constitution. And not just 
understanding and loving these precepts, but living by the truths and 
codes of conduct they demand of us.
  To deal in stamps is to traffic in history. Each stamp is a 
distillation of a single, significant moment, a freezing of time to 
mark it for mankind. Irwin Weinberg has collected stamps since he was 
12 years old. When he was 18 he issued his first weekly price list 
which he still publishes the same way, on an old mimeograph machine. He 
is a sole practitioner, handling each transaction without the aid of a 
computer, a copier, a fax machine or even a secretary. In this business 
he is respected throughout the world. Not unlike the delicate stamps 
themselves, Irwin Weinberg has maintained the integrity of the moment. 
It is an honor for me to celebrate him.

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