[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 77 (Tuesday, June 4, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HONORING ERIC MESCH

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 4, 2013

  Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, Eric Mesch has been involved in adult Jewish 
education programming at Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of 
Riverdale where he teaches on topics of interest, and for several 
years, organized the all-night learning program on Shavuot. Last year, 
Eric organized an event in memory of Matt Fenster z''1, in which 
members of many different Jewish communities came together to mark the 
completion of the study of the Mishnah. Eric is also a member of the 
Board of Directors of Mechon Hadar.
  For as long as he can remember, Eric's connection to Jewish study has 
been intense, complex and defining. He grew up on Staten Island in a 
Conservative Jewish home and synagogue, but attended the Orthodox 
Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn from third grade through high school. 
Later, as an undergraduate at Yale College, Eric majored in religious 
studies and also spent a semester at Yeshivat Hamivtar in Israel. After 
college, Eric attended Columbia Law School, graduating with his J.D. in 
1995.
  Eric met his wife Rachel while they were undergraduates at Yale but 
they didn't start dating until his senior and her junior year. Their 
relationship blossomed over good coffee, something that is still 
important to them. They married in 1995 and in their first year of 
married life they lived in Jerusalem where Eric was a law clerk to the 
Supreme Court of Israel and Rachel continued her graduate work at 
Hebrew University. They have three children, Abby, Eliza and Sam.
  Eric is a partner with the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLP, 
focusing on bankruptcy-related and other complex commercial litigation 
while Rachel is a professor of French literature and chair of the 
Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Yeshiva 
University.
  I congratulate Eric for all the good work he is doing at the 
Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale. He had made CSAIR and 
the Riverdale community a better place.

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