[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 77 (Wednesday, June 12, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1024-E1025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       TRIBUTE TO AMBASSADOR MAXWELL RABB: A MAN WITHOUT BORDERS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 11, 2002

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to my dear friend, 
Ambassador Maxwell M. Rabb, who died in New York, on Sunday, June 2, at 
the age of 91.
  Ambassador Rabb was a distinguished lawyer, secretary to the cabinet 
in the Eisenhower Administration, ambassador to Italy in the Reagan 
Administration and held a variety of positions in government and in 
service to civil society.
  On Wednesday, June 12, he will be funeralized at the Congregation 
Emanu-el in New York, where he served as president from 1973 to 1981.
  Born in Boston, where he was educated at Harvard College and Harvard 
Law School, Ambassador Rabb was a most uncommon man in talents and 
accomplishments. In service to his country, he demonstrated an 
extraordinary ability to overcome differences between nations, 
religions, and the races. Exhibiting qualities instilled from 
childhood, he had a unique empathy, an ability to feel as others felt, 
and thus engender trust.
  Such was the case in his dealings with my predecessor, Congressman 
Adam Clayton Powell who, as the political leader of the civil rights 
movement in the 1950's, had ongoing dealings with Rabb. It seemed 
impossible that a first generation Jewish American with roots in the 
old country in Europe and an elitist Boston education could succeed at 
his assignment as the Eisenhower administration's point man on civil 
rights. How could this modest unassuming man relate to the provocative, 
flamboyant and street-smart Congressman-preacher from Harlem?
  Somehow, Maxwell Rabb did succeed, winning Powell's trust and 
admiration along the way. Indeed, Rabb enhanced a long list of credits 
by quietly writing himself into the annals of the great movement for 
civil rights.
  More than an intermediary for the Eisenhower administration, Rabb was 
an honest broker and deal-maker with Powell in the Congressman's 
successful struggle to desegregate U.S. military facilities. In a 
sense, Rabb--by tempering the Congressman's brickbats--guided the 
battering ram which brought down a dehumanizing racist practice.
  The two had met on Capitol Hill, when Rabb, as a young lawyer, worked 
as an aide to Senator Henry Cabot Lodge. After service in the Navy 
during WWII, he joined the Eisenhower Administration where he served in 
various posts, including secretary to the cabinet and liaison to Jewish 
groups, labor and civil rights.
  In the 1960's, he was president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees 
and was active in securing the release of Americans in detention in 
communist East Germany. In the 1980's he served with great distinction 
as ambassador to Italy in the Reagan Administration, repairing damaged 
relations with one of our most important allies following the hijacking 
of the Achille Lauro.
  In his lifetime, the Ambassador applied his considerable talents to 
difficult and sensitive situations around the world--never forgetting 
the lot of the less fortunate, whether in South Asia, Israel, Eastern 
Europe or the United States.
  Ambassador Maxwell Rabb, a man without borders, had a heart big 
enough to reach out to people whom he resembled, in color and 
background, not in the least--with respect, compassion and love.
  I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife Ruth, and his children, 
Bruce, Sheila

[[Page E1025]]

Weidenfeld, Emily Livingston and Priscilla Ayres, and I call on my 
colleagues to join me in tribute.

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