[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 67 (Tuesday, May 11, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E913-E914]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ADDRESS OF LENNY BEN-DAVID, DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION AT THE EMBASSY OF 
 ISRAEL, AT THE NATIONAL CIVIC COMMEMORATION OF THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 11, 1999

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, April 13, Members of Congress 
joined with representatives of the diplomatic corps, executive and 
judicial branch officials, and Holocaust survivors and their families 
to commemorate the National Days of Remembrance in the Rotunda of the 
United States Capitol.
  The ceremony coincided with the 60th anniversary of the voyage of the 
SS St. Louis, which set sail from Germany in April 1939, carrying more 
than 900 Jews away from Nazi terror. Denied entry to both Cuba and the 
United States, the St. Louis was forced to send its frightened 
passengers back to Europe just months before the onset of World War II. 
Many of them were eventually murdered in Auschwitz, Treblinka, and 
other death camps of Hitler's Holocaust.
  While we cannot rectify the wrongs of generations ago, we can apply 
the lesson of the St. Louis to the crises of today. In the Europe of 
1999, innocent civilians are once again being deported, abused, raped 
and murdered. While the scale of Serbian atrocities in Kosovo does not 
approach the enormity of the Holocaust, the precedent that would be set 
by ignoring this ethnic cleansing cannot be tolerated.
  Lenny Ben-David, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of 
Israel, reminded us of our moral responsibility at the Days of 
Remembrance ceremony. He quoted the sage advice of the late Rabbi Yosef 
Dov Soloveitchik: ``The function of the halachic (righteous) man is to 
redress the grievances of those who are abandoned and alone, to protect 
the dignity of the poor and to save the oppressed from his oppressor.'' 
Mr. Speaker, this is true now more than ever.
  Lenny Ben-David was appointed Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy 
of Israel by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997. Prior to this 
appointment, Mr. Ben-David served as an independent consultant on 
public and political affairs. He held senior posts in the American 
Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for 25 years, opening and 
directing AIPAC's office in Israel for almost 15 years. Mr. Ben-David 
is a graduate of Yeshiva University in New York. He received a Masters 
degree in Political Science from the American University in Washington, 
D.C. He and his wife, Rochelle Black, have six children.
  Mr. Speaker, I submit the full text of Mr. Ben-David's address at the 
Days of Remembrance ceremony to be printed in the Congressional Record.

   Days of Remembrance Program, U.S. Capitol Rotunda, April 13, 1999

   (Remarks by Lenny Ben-David, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of 
                                Israel)

       Ever since I heard of today's theme (The S.S. St. Louis), I 
     have been obsessed with the thoughts of ships.
       First, the St. Louis, with more than 900 Jews, including 
     children. We are told that little children on board played a 
     game: they formed a barricade from the deck chairs. Two 
     children served as guards and other children sought 
     permission to pass.
       ``Are you a Jew?'' asked the child guard.
       ``Yes,'' was the other child's reply.
       ``Jews are not allowed to pass,'' the guard responded.
       ``Oh please let me in. I am only a very little Jew.''
       Little or big, Jews on that ship never disembarked in Cuba 
     or America.
       A few years later, another ship was fitted up in the 
     Baltimore harbor. Ultimately it became known as the Exodus. 
     Loaded with 4,500 survivors, this boat could not deliver its 
     human cargo to the shores of Eretz Yisrael in 1947. Like the 
     passengers on the St. Louis, they too were forced to return 
     to the countries from which they had fled. Thank God, for 
     their sake, the Nazis had been defeated, but anti-Semitism 
     was not. Jews could still not disembark from a sinking ghost 
     ship called Europe. Pogroms were still taking place.
       Finally in May 1948, safe haven was secured when Israel was 
     founded.
       I am reminded of another boat. Some 30 years later, another 
     ship full of refugees was floundering in the China Sea. 
     Vietnamese refugees, starving and thirsty, they were picked 
     up by an Israeli ship. In his first official act in office, 
     Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered that they be given 
     haven in Israel.
       And other ships come to mind: Small boats smuggling the 
     precious cargo of Jews from North Africa. Some never made it. 
     Missile boats of the Israeli Navy quietly sailing up to the 
     shores of Africa in the dead of night to take the Jews of 
     Ethiopia home, a journey of

[[Page E914]]

     hundreds of miles and hundreds of years of culture. Later, 
     the air ships would fly the Ethiopians to Israel by the 
     thousands as they did their Yemenite brothers and sisters 40 
     years earlier.
       Today, the ships of the air continue to fly, loaded with 
     Jews from Moscow and Minsk, Bucharest and Bukhara, Kiev and 
     St. Petersburg. In recent weeks, they have been arriving from 
     Belgrade and Kosovo, too. As Israel has been a haven to Jews, 
     so it has also been, in its small way, a haven to Moslem 
     refugees from Bosnia and Kosovo.
       Ladies and gentlemen, I am reminded of one other boat. The 
     ship's log is found in the Tanach, the Jewish Bible, ``The 
     Lord then hurled a furious wind upon the sea; there was a 
     heavy storm at sea, and the ship was about to be broken up. 
     The sailors were frightened, each cried to his own god and 
     they threw overboard the cargo that was in the ship in order 
     to lighten it; but Jonah had gone down below deck and was 
     lying fast asleep.'' Later, when they cast lots, and the lot 
     fell upon Jonah, the ship's crew turned to Jonah and asked, 
     ``What have you done?! They knew that Jonah was running away 
     from the Lord's presence.''
       Friends, Jonah could not run away from his duties, and he 
     realized after experiencing the dark and dank belly of the 
     great fish, that you could try to run from your 
     responsibilities even to the depths of the ocean, but you 
     cannot hide. That is why the book of Jonah is traditionally 
     read in synagogues on Yom Kippur.
       The late contemporary sage, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, 
     would quote his grandfather, Rabbi Chaim of Brisk: ``The 
     function of the halachic (righteous) man is to redress the 
     grievances of those who are abandoned and alone, to protect 
     the dignity of the poor and to save the oppressed from the 
     hands of his oppressor.''
       Yes, that is how we can and must avoid the moral shipwreck 
     caused by apathy and indifference, and bring humankind to 
     safe port. Thank you.

     

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