[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 61 (Tuesday, April 9, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E436-E437]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  TRIBUTE TO SOFIYA FIKHMAN--28TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT WOMAN OF THE 
                                  YEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, April 9, 2019

  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today in honor of Women's History 
Month. Each year, we pay special tribute to the contributions and 
sacrifices made by our nation's women. It is an honor to pay homage to 
outstanding women who are making a difference in my Congressional 
District. I would like to recognize a remarkable woman, Sofiya Fikhman 
of West Hollywood, California.
   Born in the Ukraine in 1939, Sofiya was two years old when the war 
between the Soviet Union and Germany began. During World War II, she 
and her family, along with thirteen strangers, lived in the Bershad 
ghetto in a one-room tenement. After the Soviet army freed the ghetto 
in 1944, Sofiya and her family returned to Savran in 1945, where they 
lived until 1952, thereafter moving to Moldova to join her father's 
family, where she pursued her education at a medical college to become 
a nurse.
   Sofiya married her husband, Shmil, in 1958, and they had two 
children. Upon completing her degree that same year, she began work in 
a children's hospital as a supervisor until 1967; then worked in early 
childhood education, retiring in 1988 to help raise her grandchildren. 
Ms. Fikhman was over fifty years old when she and her family moved to 
the United States in 1991, with the dream of creating a new life in a 
new country. She worked as a caregiver for the elderly, babysitter, and 
volunteered in her free time.
   A tireless and dedicated volunteer, Ms. Fikhman has always enjoyed 
being of service to people in the community. She joined the Association 
of Holocaust Survivors from the Former Soviet Union in 1996, and two 
years later, started volunteering for the organization and undertook 
various tasks including answering telephone calls, curating events, 
assisting new immigrants, and visiting survivors in care facilities and 
hospitals. She expanded her volunteer work by visiting several Jewish 
day schools, where she educated young people about her experience 
during the Holocaust. Ms. Fikhman became a member of the City of West 
Hollywood Russian Advisory Board in 2006, where she continued to plan 
cultural events and assist immigrant families. Presently, Sofiya is a 
staunch volunteer at the City of West Hollywood's Russian Language 
Public Library.
   I ask all Members to join me in honoring this exceptional, well-
respected woman of California's 28th Congressional District, Sofiya 
Fikhman.

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