[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 37 (Friday, March 27, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2714-S2715]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATIONS JUDITH M. BARZILAY

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, for the Barzilay, Morgenstern and Specter 
families, it is a great honor for Judith M. Barzilay to become a judge 
on the U.S. International Court of Trade. She was nominated by the 
President on January 27 and confirmed by the Senate March 11, 1998.
  For her immigrant grandparents, Harry and Lillie Specter and Max and 
Regina Morgenstern, it is an accomplishment beyond their aspirations 
even though they knew they came to a land of great opportunity.
  In May of 1947, Max and Regina left the bar and grill which they 
operated on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn to visit their son, Arthur, his 
wife Hilda, her parents in Russell, KS, and, most of all to see their 
granddaughters, Judith, age 3, and Julia, 3 months old. By then, Judy 
pretty much presided over her parents' household just as she had

[[Page S2715]]

over the household of her Specter grandparents after she was born on 
January 3, 1944.
  Judith was the New Year's baby of Russell for 1944. In New York City, 
the first born in the New Year probably arrived at 12:01 a.m., but it 
took 3 days for Russell's first arrival in 1944. She came with a 
retinue of presents from the town's merchants and to our five-room 
bungalow at 115 Elm Street.
  My sister, Hilda, her mother, was a brilliant graduate from the 
University of Wichita in 1942, had won a scholarship to Syracuse 
University to pursue a masters degree in governmental administration. 
She had met, Arthur Morgensten, a handsome lieutenant stationed at Fort 
Riley, when he came to Wichita in the fall of 1941 to attend Yom Kippur 
services. They fell in love. So when he was about to ship overseas to 
the South Pacific in April 1943, Hilda took the transcontinental train 
ride to San Francisco where they were married. It was not the typical 
wartime romance with a weekend honeymoon, because the marriage has 
lasted 1 day shy of 55 years and is still going strong.
  When Hilda came home to Russell, KS, to await Judith's arrival, our 
family was overjoyed, including me, her little brother, although I took 
up residence in the scorpion-infested basement and gave up high school 
basketball to take over Hilda's bookkeeping job at O.K. Rubber Welders 
I might add--at 50 cents an hour.
  For me, Judy was more like a sister than a niece during that time. 
For my parents, Judy was the apple of their eyes. When our sister, 
Shirley, took off a year from Oklahoma College for Women to teach 
country school, my father would leave his junkyard to drive Shirley to 
school with his virtual constant companion, Judith, sitting beside him 
in the truck without the modern safeguards of seat belts.
  My brother, Morton, returned to Russell to join my father and Arthur 
in a partnership which moved from junk, that is scrap metal, to used 
oil field equipment to stripper wells. The Morgenstern children, Judy 
and Julia, joined by twins Jonathan and Johanna in 1952, were the 
centerpieces of our close-knit family.
  When the children grew older and their parents wanted a Jewish 
education for them, the Morgensterns moved to Wichita where Hilda took 
on the job of superintendent of the Hebrew School. Wichita was 
inadequate so they moved to Denver. Denver was inadequate so they moved 
to New York City. New York City was inadequate, so they moved to 
Jerusalem where Hilda and Arthur live to this day.
  Meanwhile Judy was a serious and accomplished student receiving a 
B.A. degree from Wichita State University and M.L.S. and J.D. from 
Rutgers University. After graduation from law school, she was a staff 
attorney with the International Trade Office of the U.S. Department of 
Justice from 1983 through 1986. She then practiced law with the 
prestigious firm of Siegel, Mandell & Davidson in New York City for 
2\1/2\ years before joining Sony Electronics, Inc., where she worked 
from October 1988 to the present attaining the position of vice 
president of government affairs.
  With 16 years of experience as a manager, litigator, and business 
adviser, she was appointed by Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin in 1995 
to the Treasury Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of the U.S. 
Customs Service. She has lectured on international trade law and its 
application to business. With this extraordinary background, she is 
preeminently well qualified for the U.S. International Court of Trade.
  While it is customary to make a floor speech on confirmation of a 
nominee, I have taken a little more time of the Senate and the cost of 
printing in the Congressional Record because I believe it is worthwhile 
to note the accomplishments and contributions of families of America's 
immigrants. We debate the immigration issue in Congress in a variety of 
contexts, so it is important to chronolog how our country has been 
enriched by the immigrants' families as evidenced by the new judge for 
the U.S. International Court of Trade: the Honorable Judith M. 
Barzilay.

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