[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 128 (Thursday, September 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Page S6532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING ZEV WOLFSON

  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise in a tribute to Zev Wolfson, an 
extraordinary philanthropist and humanitarian whose great deeds are 
unknown to most people because he never sought to make them known. 
Throughout his remarkable career, Mr. Wolfson offered millions of 
people--of all ages all around the world--the opportunity to experience 
Jewish education and give back to their families, religion, and 
communities with dignity and pride. He dedicated his life to supporting 
and advocating for Jewish outreach projects, tirelessly devoted to the 
power and importance of faith for future generations.
  Throughout his life, Mr. Wolfson constantly aided communities 
wherever Jewish education was endangered. He began as an advocate for 
the Jewish nation. Walking the halls of Congress, he vigorously and 
expertly supported programs and institutions in Israel, such as schools 
and other educational centers--many helping Jewish refugees and their 
children who had escaped from Arab countries. Committed to providing 
assistance on a global scale, he focused on a particular project and, 
once it was sustainable and self-sufficient, moved to the next one.
  Mr. Wolfson donated millions of dollars to underprivileged areas of 
the United States and underserved areas of the world. He drew from the 
personal pain of exile to Siberia in wartime--where he carried his 
father's body to a place where he could have a proper Jewish funeral in 
the freezing tundra--and then served as a father figure to millions. He 
helped young people, students, and families to stay connected with the 
Jewish nation, in lands stretching from the former Soviet Union and 
Israel to France and the United States.
  As deliberately and tirelessly as he advanced his good deeds, he 
consistently avoided public recognition for them. He gave without any 
expectation of praise or acclaim, and his anonymity was purposeful and 
persistent. His diverse and numerous initiatives--birthright programs 
in colleges around the country, vocational and religious education 
activities around the globe, and many other programs--made Mr. Wolfson 
one of his generation's most influential leaders, but he remained 
virtually unknown. Now, I invite my colleagues to join me in according 
Mr. Wolfson this measure of recognition for the millions of people 
whose lives he touched and enhanced.

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