[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 81 (Tuesday, June 12, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1071]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO GABRIEL EREM

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 12, 2001

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in paying 
tribute to Gabriel Erem, the publisher of Lifestyles magazine, upon his 
being selected as the inaugural recipient of the prestigious 
``Jerusalem Award'' by the UJA-Federation of New York. This is in 
recognition of his thirty years of community involvement and for 
donating his time and resources to numerous charitable causes. The 
award will be presented on June 18th, 2001 in New York City.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Erem has lived the quintessential American dream. He 
was born in Hungary among the ruins of WWII to Holocaust survivors 
Rabbi Akiva Eichler and Borbala Frank. After winning a national writing 
context in 1964, Gabriel caught the attention of the Communist party 
and was eventually persecuted by them for his writings. Fearing for his 
safety he escaped to Israel, where he attended Tel Aviv University and 
later worked as a freelance journalist for several major newspapers. 
After Mr. Erem arrived in North America he founded a publishing company 
and has risen to the top of the publishing profession.
  Mr. Speaker, in addition to managing a successful magazine, Gabriel 
Erem serves on a number of humanitarian and charitable boards both in 
the United States and abroad. He is the Co-Chairman of the Children of 
Chernobyl organization and has worked on the establishment of the 
Endowment for Democracy School in Budapest, Hungary. He is a member of 
the Executive Committee of the Israel Bonds organization, and serves on 
the Supervisory Boards of Bar Ilan University, Rambam Medical Center, 
Boys Town of Jerusalem and The Center of the Cantorial Arts. Mr. Erem 
is also a Member Emeritus on the council that bestows the Raoul 
Wallenberg Humanitarian Awards on behalf of the Shaarei Zedek Medical 
Center of Jerusalem and is an advisor to the College of Tosh where the 
new Torah Study Center was named after his late father, Rabbi Akiva 
Eichler.
  Mr. Erem is an advisor to New York University Law School, Mount Sinai 
Hospital in New York, and the Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation in 
Toronto. Mr. Erem's commitment to educating people about the Holocaust 
led him to join Steven Spielberg's Survivors of the Shoah Visual 
History Foundation. He is also an associate member of the Conference of 
Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations and is a member of the 
National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Gabriel Erem has been 
married for 29 years to his wife, Susan, and they are the parents of 
two lovely children.
  Mr. Speaker, Gabriel Erem's Lifestyles magazine was established to 
salute Jewish contributions in all areas of life. Over the past thirty 
years, the magazine has published profiles of extraordinary human 
beings ranging from Nobel Laureates, to giants of the art world, and 
individuals who have excelled in their various fields. Under Mr. Erem's 
leadership Lifestyles has established itself as a respected voice of 
integrity and continues to spotlight numerous and various humanitarian 
causes in each issue.
  Mr. Speaker, Gabriel Erem, a child of Holocaust survivors, is being 
honored for his passionate commitment to teaching Jewish history and 
culture and preserving the Jewish legacy to the world. He has made 
numerous contributions to Holocaust education in our country, including 
the dedication of several issues of his magazine to teaching future 
generations about the lessons of the Holocaust. He is a man of 
outstanding commitment and accomplishment in the noblest of pursuits, 
who continues to contribute to culture, education, ethnic 
understanding, and the spreading of democratic and free market 
principles. Through his vast commitment to preserving and nurturing 
Jewish communal life, both in the United States and Canada, Gabriel 
Erem has made a tremendous and enduring gift to the education of future 
generations about Jewish history and culture.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me paying tribute Gabriel 
Erem for his contributions to our society and applaud him on receiving 
the UJA-Federation of New York's first annual Jerusalem Award.

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