[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 72 (Wednesday, May 14, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S6251]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO JERRY BERLIN

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I pay tribute to Jerry Berlin--a 
friend, an American patriot, and a principled and passionate man. On 
April 29, in a shocking tragedy, Jerry was shot and killed by his 
business partner at the Signature Grand banquet hall, which they had 
worked so hard to build together.
  It is always difficult to know what to say when people we care about 
are taken from us before their time. Even more difficult when the death 
is so sudden, so horrific, as this one was. But let me take a moment to 
pay tribute to the great American life that Jerry lived.
  Jerry was born in New York. His family, like many others, moved down 
to Miami when he was a boy. In high school at Miami Beach High, Jerry 
acted and danced in school productions. Those who knew him might have 
guessed it because he always had a spark in his eye and a spring in his 
step.
  Jerry's hard work quickly established him as a stellar lawyer, and 
one of the best Democratic fundraisers in the country. He believed in 
what our party believes: that if you work hard and play by the rules, 
you should be able to go as far in America as your talents will take 
you. And he didn't just talk about those ideals. He lived by them.
  In the mid-1980s, Jerry's boundless energy led him to team with his 
business partner to create Signature Gardens, a banquet hall that 
catered literally and figuratively to the middle class. It was a place 
for weddings, proms, sweet sixteens, Bar and Bat Mitzvahs. You name it. 
It was a place where the community came together. And it was a 
wonderful success.
  All who knew Jerry are still in disbelief that his life could be 
taken, and in such a horrible way.
  In recent years, I am told, Jerry was becoming more religious. He was 
exploring his faith. He even went to study in Jerusalem. I have no 
doubt he is with God, in peace, now. We mourn for him and pray for his 
children, Ashley, Bret and Sharon, his ex-wife Gwen, and his fiancee, 
Marna Ross.

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