[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 199 (Friday, December 28, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2670]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF BETH SHARON SAMUELS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. HENRY A. WAXMAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 28, 2007

  Mr. WAXMAN. Madam Speaker, this week marks the first anniversary in 
the Hebrew calendar of the passing of Beth Sharon Samuels, an 
extraordinary constituent who lost her life to cancer in January 2007 
at the age of thirty-one.
  Beth grew up in Los Angeles, attending the Yeshiva University High 
School of Los Angeles and graduating as valedictorian. She went on to 
study at a women's seminary in Israel before graduating from Columbia 
University with a degree in mathematics. She then completed a three-
year program at the Drisha Institute in Bible and Talmud, a Ph.D. in 
math at Yale, and earned an assistant professorship at the University 
of California, Berkeley. In the meantime, she gave birth to a daughter 
Danelle and later to daughter Natalia while undergoing intensive 
chemotherapy treatments.
  Beth coupled her academic talent with a passion for Jewish learning. 
During her time at Columbia, she served as a leader of the Jewish 
community and was a force for change on behalf of women's participation 
in Jewish ritual life. While at the Drisha Institute she traveled 
around the country to teach young women how to engage Jewish texts and 
explore their spirituality. She imbued all of her pursuits with 
youthful energy and zeal.
  According to her husband Ari, Beth wished that her legacy be the 
Jewish value of chesed--kindness. Her friends and family remember her 
for an extraordinary capacity to perform countless acts of kindness for 
others and help bring out the best in others. They celebrate her short 
life for its wisdom, zest, and humanity.
  My condolences go out to her parents, Elana and Zachary, her husband, 
Ari, her daughters Danelle and Natalia and her extended friends and 
family on this solemn occasion.