[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 6 (Tuesday, January 10, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E41-E42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        HONORING THE 100TH BIRTHDAY OF MR. HENRY MORGENTHAU, III

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 10, 2017

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 100th birthday 
of Mr. Henry Morgenthau, III. Mr. Morgenthau was born at home in New 
York City on January 11, 1917, to Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and his beloved 
mother Elinor Fatman.
  A man of creativity, and vision, a parent, poet, author, film maker 
and producer, Mr. Morgenthau found his own success in a family known 
for its achievements in public service.
  In his 20s, Mr. Morgenthau graduated from Princeton University and 
served his country as a U.S. Army officer, rising to the rank of 
Captain, and receiving a Bronze Star.
  In his 30s, Mr. Morgenthau developed his distinguished career in 
public broadcasting which lasted into his 60's. He produced an 
impressive group of documentaries and series, including ``The Negro and 
the American Promise'' with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and James 
Baldwin; and ``Prospects of Mankind'' with Eleanor Roosevelt. His work 
won him and Boston's WGBH, national acclaim, including Emmy, Peabody, 
UPI, and other awards and nominations.
  In his 40s, Mr. Morgenthau married Professor Ruth Schachter, a 
refugee of the Holocaust who became an advisor to Presidents, a world 
renowned Africa expert, a champion of the underdeveloped world, and a 
trailblazer for women, among her many significant accomplishments. 
Together, Henry and Ruth have three children, Sarah, Henry (Ben), and 
Kramer; and six grandchildren Edward, Henry, Mizia, Henry, Mizia, and 
Osias.
  In his 70s, Mr. Morgenthau published ``Mostly Morgenthaus,'' a 
history of an American

[[Page E42]]

family known for its remarkable public service. At the outbreak of 
World War I, his grandfather, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., served as Woodrow 
Wilson's U.S. Ambassador to the Sublime Porte (the imperial government 
of the Ottoman Empire), distinguishing himself in part by his 
unblinking dispatches about what he described as ``a campaign of race 
extermination'' against the Armenians before the term ``genocide'' had 
been coined. His father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., served as Treasury 
Secretary for eleven years under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 
His brother, Robert Morgenthau, was named U.S. Attorney by President 
Kennedy, before entering politics as the 1962 Democratic nominee for 
Governor of NY, and then winning elections to be Manhattan's longest 
serving District Attorney. Other distinguished members of Mr. 
Morgenthau's family include his sister Joan Hirschhorn, his first 
cousin Barbara Tuchman, and his great uncles Governor Herbert Lehman 
and Chief Judge Irving Lehman of NY.
  Mr. Morgenthau, along with his father, grandfather, brother, and 
sister, has distinguished himself in his dedicated support for American 
and International Jewry. He and his wife Ruth were named as Harvard 
Hillel's 2004 Tribute to Excellence Honorees. His wife served on the 
board of the American Jewish World Service and his brother was a 
founder of Manhattan's Museum of Jewish Heritage. Henry Morgenthau, Sr. 
led a major relief effort for the Jews in Palestine before it was 
Israel. Mr. Morgenthau has also been a great supporter of Armenia and 
her people.
  At 95, Mr. Morgenthau took up poetry as ``a celebration of the 
evening of a long life.'' He writes: ``In these precious days I dress 
my private demons in these scribblings to come out from behind the 
shadows that have darkened my long and privileged life.''
  At 96, Mr. Morgenthau published his first poem, and at 99 his first 
solo book of poetry was published, ``A Sunday in Purgatory.'' Pulitzer 
prize winning poet, Peter Balakian, wrote: ``Morgenthau's poems are 
crisp, elegant forays into memory both personal and cultural . . . His 
surgical examinations of self and his unflinching stare into mortality 
define the unique and honest voice of this remarkable first book of 
poems.''
  A man of elegance, distinction, and sweetness, at 100 Mr. Morgenthau 
remains alive to the world, eager to create more.

                          ____________________