[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 44 (Tuesday, April 21, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E603]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IN HONOR OF YAFFA ELIACH

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CHARLES E. SCHUMER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 21, 1998

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. Speaker, one of the great pleasures of serving in 
this legislative body is the opportunity we occasionally get to 
publicly acknowledge the outstanding pillars of our community.
  I ask my colleagues to join me today in congratulating Mrs. Yaffa 
Eliach on being named Brooklyn College's Alumna of the Year.
  Mrs. Eliach currently is a professor of History and Literature in the 
Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College. She is a pioneer 
scholar in Holocaust Studies and the creator of the acclaimed ``Tower 
of Life'' at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and also 
served on President Carter's Holocaust Commission. Yaffa was among a 
handful of academics who introduced Holocaust Studies on the American 
Campus, and is the founder of the first Center of Holocaust Studies in 
the United States. She served as its volunteer director until 1991.
  Mrs. Eliach was born in Vilna, lived in Ejszyski until she was four 
and spent the rest of the early years of her childhood in Nazi-occupied 
Europe, in ghettos and hiding places. Because of these experiences she 
felt that she must never let people forget what took place during those 
turbulent years in Europe. Today Mrs. Eliach is a historian, poet, and 
a playwright dedicated to educating people about the past. Her most 
recent publication, ``There Once Was A World; A Nine Century Chronical 
of the Shetetl of Eishyshok'' is her latest attempt to teach people 
about the past. It is the history of the people in the ``Tower of 
Life'' exhibit.
  She is also contributing scholar to the ``Encyclopedia Judaica,'' the 
``Women's Studies Encyclopedia,'' ``The Encyclopedia of Hasidism'' and 
is a frequent contributor to scholarly, literary and popular 
publications in the United States, Canada, Israel, Europe and 
Australia. Some of her accomplishments include winning a Woodrow Wilson 
Dissertation Fellowship Award, a Louis E. Yavner Award, and being named 
by CBS as the Woman of the Year in 1995.
  Ms. Eliach's hard work and dedication throughout the years make her a 
very deserving recipient. I congratulate her on this award, and wish 
her continued success championing her cause.

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