[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 65 (Tuesday, May 23, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E812-E813]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      REMARKS OF AMBASSADOR DAVID IVRY AT THE DAYS OF REMEMBRANCE 
                             COMMEMORATION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 23, 2000

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, May 4, Members of Congress 
joined with representatives of the diplomatic corps, executive and 
judicial branch officials and hundreds of Holocaust survivors and their 
families to commemorate the Days of Remembrance in the rotunda of the 
United States Capitol. The theme of this year's commemoration was ``The 
Holocaust and the New Century: The Imperative to Remember.''
  After more than half a century, Mr. Speaker, we must still 
commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust in order to honor the memory 
of those victims of Hitler's twisted tyranny. At the same time, we must 
mark this catastrophe because mankind still has not learned the lessons 
of this horror, as evidenced most recently by the mass killings in 
Kosovo.
  Mr. Speaker, David Ivry, Israeli Ambassador to the United States 
delivered a moving address at this year's Day of Remembrance ceremony. 
I ask that Ambassador Ivry's remarks at the Days of Remembrance 
ceremony in the Capitol be placed in the Record, and I urge my 
colleagues to give them thoughtful consideration.
  David Ivry was appointed Israeli Ambassador to the United States in 
January 2000. From 1977 to 1982, he held the rank of Major General and 
Commander of the Israel Air Force. Ambassador Ivry is a graduate of 
Technion University, where he earned a Bachelors of Science in 
Aeronautical Engineering. He has held many governmental posts, most 
recently serving as Israel's National Security Advisor and Head of the 
National Security Council. He and his wife Ofra have three children and 
two grandchildren.

     Remarks of David Ivry, Israeli Ambassador to the United States

       His Excellency, Goran Persson Prime, Prime Minister of 
     Sweden, Mr. Chairman, honored Members of Congress, diplomatic 
     colleagues and friends: ``Yizkor--remember.'' The act of 
     remembering has always been a basic principle for the Jewish 
     people. In order to remember, the Jewish people have a 
     traditional prayer called the Yizkor, which is recited around 
     the world today. The word Yizkor is in the future tense. It 
     teaches us that the act of remembering the past goes beyond 
     the present and pushes humankind into the future.
       My father left Czechoslovakia when Hitler came to power. He 
     reached Israel in 1934 and that is where I was born. Our 
     house contains an album with photos of many members of my 
     family who perished in the Shoah. Few understood the danger. 
     Few believed that such a tragedy could take place. Few 
     imagined that the human mind could conceive such a twisted 
     path. Even today it is difficult to understand. There were 
     brave individuals who provided shelter to Jews. My father's 
     sister was given shelter and hidden by a Christian family in 
     Bratislava, and at the end of the war she made Aliya to 
     Israel. We must also remember those who extended a hand while 
     endangering themselves.
       Ladies and gentlemen, in my career as an Air Force pilot, I 
     was given the privilege to view the world from thirty 
     thousand feet and

[[Page E813]]

     above. From that altitude, armed with the responsibility and 
     collective memory of our people's history, one can see the 
     past, present and future. We were given the opportunity to 
     engage and destroy the immediate threats that faced the 
     Jewish nation. And we committed ourselves to diminish the 
     threats to future generations.
       However, the dangers to humanity are not always military in 
     nature. They are also found in the realm of ideas: in the 
     promotion of evil, in the active denial of evil, or even in 
     the refusal to see evil. The United States played an 
     important role in the founding of the State of Israel, as a 
     shelter for the Jewish people. The commandment ``To 
     Remember'' is also a commandment to remember the positive, 
     and so we will. The Jewish People remember the American role. 
     The Jewish People see the United States as a symbol and 
     example of moral principle and justice. We pray that this 
     superpower will continue to lead the world so that tragedies 
     such as the Shoah will never be repeated in the 21st century.

     

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