[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 151 (Monday, October 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1577]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING HANNAH KRANZBERG

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BARBARA LEE

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 28, 2013

  Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Hannah 
Kranzberg, who today is receiving the Guardian of Democracy award from 
the New Israel Fund for her longtime service to the global community 
promoting peace, justice, and social and economic equality.
  Before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area from her native New York 
in the 1970's, Hannah taught in an all-day neighborhood school program 
in Brooklyn as part of a broader effort to provide enrichment programs 
to children who lived in disadvantaged communities.
  Then, as an activist in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hannah continued 
her interest in making and supporting social documentaries that brought 
important issues to the attention of the public. As an artist, she was 
also one of three principal individuals who painted the People's Park 
mural in Berkeley in 1976, which is now a local landmark with major 
historic and cultural significance.
  In the last 40 years, Hannah's significant philanthropic work has 
left a lasting impact on our society. She has supported organizations 
that advocate everything from human rights and civil rights, economic 
and social justice, and conflict transformation in a local, national 
and global context. I am proud to call her my confidant, my supporter, 
but most importantly, my friend.
  As part of her long term efforts to advance women's equality locally 
and throughout the world, Hannah was a supporter of the San Francisco 
Women's Building, the first woman-owned and operated community center 
in the country, which advocates self-determination, gender equality and 
social justice. She has also supported the Global Fund for Women, a 
non-profit that provides grants to women-led organizations worldwide to 
enable women and girls to reach their potential, and to live free of 
discrimination and violence. In addition, she has been a founding 
contributor to the Urgent Action Fund for women's human rights, which 
provides rapid response grants to women human rights defenders 
throughout the world.
  The spectrum of Hannah's philanthropic work is wide-reaching. She 
contributed to the founding of La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, 
California. She is also an ongoing advocate of the Martin Luther King 
Jr. Freedom Center in Oakland, California, which offers nonviolence 
classes and civic engagement for youth from diverse racial and cultural 
communities. She has been a supporter of the Funding Exchange, the 
Berkeley Community Fund, the Women's Initiative for Self-Employment, 
the Rosenberg Fund for Children, the American Jewish World Service, 
Jewish Family & Children's Services of the East Bay, Equal Rights 
Advocates, the ACLU, The Center for Constitutional Rights, MALDEF, 
NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the United Negro College Fund, the Freedom 
Archives, California Rural Legal Assistance, and the Southern Poverty 
Law Center, to name just a few.
  Beyond that, Hannah is a coalition builder. She serves on the 
Regional Board of the New Israel Fund, and as a longtime supporter of 
the Peace Development Fund, she has sought to bring together 
communities as well as oppressed and marginalized groups of people to 
enhance opportunities for movement building.
  Hannah continues to be a supporter of innovative community-based 
cultural institutions, including groundbreaking social documentaries, 
among them, the Oscar nominated ``Forever Activists: Stories from the 
Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade,'' a documentary about seven 
American veterans of the Spanish Civil War, ``The Barber of 
Birmingham,'' a documentary about James Armstrong, one of the unsung 
heroes of the U.S. civil rights movement, and ``Discovering Dominga: A 
Survivor's Story,'' about the 1982 Guatemalan massacre of 200 villagers 
who opposed the construction of a dam sponsored by the World Bank.
  Therefore, on behalf of California's 13th Congressional District, I 
salute you, Hannah Kranzberg. Your 40 years of committed activism for 
peace, justice, and equality, has made an indelible mark in our 
community, and you are truly worthy of being called a Guardian of 
Democracy.

                          ____________________