[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 13, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S4099]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO LARRY TRIBE

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, most of us in Congress know Larry Tribe 
as the highly regarded expert on constitutional law at Harvard Law 
School who has been so helpful to us for decades on the many important 
constitutional issues we often deal with in the Senate and the House of 
Representatives.
  But another side of Larry came to light last month in a very moving 
front-page article of the ``Scope'' section in the April 16 Shanghai 
Daily newspaper in China.
  Shanghai is Larry's birthplace and he recently returned there for the 
first time for the Harvard Alumni Association's ``Global Conference in 
Shanghai.'' He was interviewed by a reporter for the newspaper during 
the visit.
  As the article states, Larry was born in Shanghai in October 1941. 
His father was a Russian American who had been living in northeastern 
China where he had met his wife. When war broke out between China and 
Japan in the 1930s, they moved to Shanghai to be safer, because the 
city welcomed Jewish refugees. The Japanese occupied Shanghai, however, 
and after Pearl Harbor, Japanese soldiers arrested Larry's father and 
held him in a concentration camp because of his American citizenship. 
Larry and his mother were not allowed to visit him until near the end 
of the war, and after the war, the family came to the United States.
  During those early years in China, Larry attended kindergarten at the 
Shanghai American school. He remembers that when he finally saw the 
concentration camp, he was shocked by its harsh conditions, and he says 
the experience may have influenced his decision years later to become a 
lawyer involved in fighting for justice and human rights.
  As the author of the article, Yan Zhen, writes, ``Who would have 
thought a frightened little boy who once ran through the streets of 
Shanghai during World War II would go on to become one of the most 
revered legal minds in the United States?''
  Mr. President, I believe all of us who know and work with Larry Tribe 
will have even greater respect for him because of this extraordinary 
part of his life. He truly has lived the American Dream. I ask 
unanimous consent that the article be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                  [From Shanghai Daily, Apr. 16, 2008]

  A Life Spent in Search of Justice--Amazing Legal Mind Forged in Old 
                                Shanghai

       Laurence Tribe is regarded as one of the foremost 
     constitutional law experts in the United States. The Jewish 
     professor's books on the subject are compulsory reading for 
     aspiring--and practicing--lawyers.
       He was once voted the most admired living alumni of the 
     Harvard Law School where he is a professor while one of his 
     former research assistants was none other than US 
     presidential hopeful Barack Obama.
       Tribe's life has been filled with achievements and 
     accolades--and much of it may have to do with his early years 
     in Shanghai. He may have lived here for just five and a half 
     years, but all of these years later Tribe readily 
     acknowledges it was a special experience that helped shape 
     his life.
       After more than six decades, the premier scholar and lawyer 
     recently returned to his birthplace for the first time during 
     the Harvard Alumni Association's Global Conference in 
     Shanghai.
       It was an incredible return to the city, he tells Shanghai 
     Daily in an exclusive interview. ``It was an amazing 
     homecoming,'' he says with some emotion.
       Tribe was born in Shanghai in 1941 and remained here until 
     his family moved to the United States at the end of World War 
     II.
       His father George Israel Tribe was a Russian American who 
     had lived in Harbin, capital of China's northeastern 
     Heilongjiang Province, where he met his wife Polia 
     Diatlovitsky during the war.
       For safety reasons, the family moved south to Shanghai. But 
     just one day after the Japanese occupation of the city, 
     George Tribe was taken away by Japanese soldiers due to his 
     American citizenship and thrown into a concentration camp.
       Only as the end of the war approached were young Tribe and 
     his mother allowed to visit his father at the camp which he 
     recalls was located on Suzhou Creek, near a tobacco factory.
       ``I was quite struck by physical features of the camp,'' 
     Tribe recalls. ``My sense of justice rose . . . he didn't do 
     anything wrong, why should he be in such a place?''
       Obviously Tribe was too young to understand what American 
     citizenship meant at the time and, being a little boy, he 
     simply felt it was unfair that his father had been thrown 
     behind bars.
       ``Maybe that influenced my decision many years later to 
     become a lawyer interested in human rights,'' he says.
       Tribe, 66, is widely regarded as the leading practitioner 
     and scholar of US constitutional law. He has helped draft the 
     constitutions of countries including Russia, South Africa, 
     the Czech Republic and the Marshall Islands.
       At Harvard, where he has taught since 1968, Tribe achieved 
     a tenure professorship before the age of 30 and he was ranked 
     the most admired law professor still living in a survey of 
     more than 13,000 Harvard Law School alumni.
       Tribe, who is also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts 
     and Sciences, says he has taught more than 25,000 students 
     over the past 40 years. Among them are John Roberts, the US 
     chief justice, and Obama, a current US presidential candidate 
     who worked as Tribe's research assistant for a year.
       ``Amazing'' seemed to be the most frequent word used by 
     Tribe during his visit to Shanghai last month. Not just 
     because of the extraordinary development of the city but more 
     importantly, because he got the chance to track down the 
     residences where he once lived.
       While having dinner at a friend's house, Tribe came across 
     a lady who helped his vague recollections of Shanghai when 
     she produced the 1941 Shanghai Directory.
       The historic document recording members of the Jewish 
     community in Shanghai clearly showed that the Tribe family 
     had lived on Lafayette Avenue (now Fuxing Road) before later 
     moving in to the Picardie Apartments (now the Hengshan Hotel) 
     on Hengshan Road.
       Records also showed Tribe attended kindergarten at the 
     Shanghai American School at that time--all places he visited.
       ``It's so amazing to find buildings are still there in a 
     city of such dynamic development,'' the Jewish scholar says 
     after visiting his former residences.
       ``Some of the things are a little bit familiar, but I was 
     very small at that time (to remember everything).
       ``Many things have changed at Picardie but I definitely 
     remember the balcony. I remember standing there looking at 
     the street when I was about four,'' Tribe adds, his eyes 
     lighting up.
       What is even more amazing is that Tribe even managed to 
     find the name of his grandfather in the old Shanghai 
     directory and got the chance to visit his grandparents' 
     former home on Seymour Road (now Shaanxi Road N.), where he 
     would often visit.
       Tribe says he would have liked to have brought his son and 
     daughter and grandchildren to Shanghai, but sadly their busy 
     schedules prevented them from doing so. Both children are 
     accomplished artists and art theorists.
       Before coming though, Tribe's daughter gave him a digital 
     camera and asked him to take pictures of the places where he 
     grew up so that he could share the memories with the rest of 
     his family.
       ``It would still be nice to bring my grandchildren here one 
     day,'' he says. ``I am enormously grateful to Shanghai. I 
     would not exist but for Shanghai. Not only because I was born 
     here but this city welcomed Jews and other refugees at a time 
     when no one else would take them.''




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