[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 18 (Tuesday, February 2, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E105-E106]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DICK VOLPERT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. HOWARD L. BERMAN

                             of california

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                           HON. BRAD SHERMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 2, 1999

  Mr. BERMAN. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, Mr. Waxman and Mr. Sherman, 
and I rise today to pay tribute to our dear friend Dick Volpert, who 
this year is receiving the Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish 
Committee. Certainly we can think of nobody more deserving of an award 
that honors both superior intellect and humanitarianism. Dick is that 
all-too-rare person who cannot remain aloof when he sees a person or 
group in need of help. He has a widespread and richly-deserved 
reputation for getting passionately involved in a range of causes.
  Dick and his wife, Marcia, were without question among the most 
forceful and tireless advocates anywhere in the world on behalf of 
Soviet Jews in the 1970s and 80s. There is no doubt that their efforts 
enabled many Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union at a time when the 
freedom to practice their religion had been

[[Page E106]]

eliminated and in a very real sense their lives were in peril. The 
Volperts educated the Jewish community of Southern California and 
beyond about the dire circumstances of Soviet Jews and the absolute 
necessity of doing whatever all of us could to bring about their 
release. As far as we're concerned, Dick and Marcia merit at least a 
chapter in any history of the Soviet Jewry movement in the United 
States.
  While this was going on, Dick also spent countless hours engaged in 
pursuits relative to the Jewish community of Southern California. And 
though the cause of Soviet Jewry waned with the fall of the Soviet 
Union, Dick today remains extraordinarily active in local Jewish 
affairs. Since 1996, he has been a board member of the Brandeis-Bardin 
Institute, and he continues as both a member of the Community Relations 
Committee of the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles and the 
Executive Board of the American Jewish Committee. Dick has also been 
active with the University of Judaism and Valley Beth Shalom, a large 
synagogue in the San Fernando Valley.
  Dick has other causes that occupy his time, not to mention a thriving 
practice in real estate law. For example, he is president of the Board 
of Governors of the Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, a 
position that allows him to help determine the future of cultural life 
in Southern California. The Museum is in fact one of the most important 
places to experience art and culture in the entire region.
  We ask our colleagues to join us in saluting Dick Volpert, a man 
whose dedication to making ours a better world is an inspiration to us 
all. We are in awe of his accomplishments and proud to be his friend.

                          ____________________