[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 188 (Tuesday, October 26, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1149]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING MIMI LEVIN LIEBER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JERROLD NADLER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 26, 2021

  Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of my 
good friend Mimi Levin Lieber, a beloved public servant and leader in 
early childhood education.
  Mimi devoted her life to her mission of making literacy a right of 
all children, a passion that led her to launch Literacy Inc. (LINC), an 
organization in my district dedicated to providing children with a 
strong foundation of literacy early in life. Through her organization, 
Mimi was able to touch the lives of so many New Yorkers by taking an 
innovative community-based approach to learning that addressed the 
systemic inequalities in our education system.
  Mimi believed that through reading, everything becomes possible. This 
conviction served her well while attending the University of Chicago 
for her Bachelor's and Master of Arts Degrees and, later, training in 
London to become a pioneer in qualitative research. After completing a 
fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School for Education, she met her 
husband for life, Charles Lieber. Charles was a well-traveled, multi-
lingual native of the Netherlands who fled the Nazi occupation of 
Belgium in 1940. Forty years later, he would go on to acquire the 
Hebrew Publishing Company, the oldest American publisher of Judaica.
  After moving to New York in 1960, she and Charles raised four 
children on the Upper West Side. Mimi cherished being a mother and 
believed raising children was one of the most important, yet 
undervalued, roles in life. Mimi grew up in a cohesive Jewish community 
in Detroit, but she quickly became a true New Yorker who looked out for 
everyone in her community. She served on the synagogue board, Hebrew 
school board, the Jewish Board of Guardians, and Community Planning 
Board 7. While doing all this, Mimi, a trained sociologist, also 
founded Lieber Attitude Research which became one of the first firms to 
employ focus groups to help companies understand client thinking.
  This public service and her sociology background led me to nominate 
her to the New York State Board of Regents, where she served New York 
students for 15 years. While on the board, she successfully lobbied 
politicians around the state to make critical investments necessary to 
tum young children in the five boroughs into learners for life. During 
her service, she became a breast cancer survivor and spoke openly about 
her illness when many would not. Mimi never viewed public service as a 
sacrifice; she believed in the power of community and viewed the 
ability to serve others as a privilege. One of her sons, Janno Lieber, 
continued her tradition of public service and currently serves as 
Acting Chair and CEO of New York's MTA. In her later years, she spent 
much of her time at her family's countryside retreat in Spencertown, 
New York and continued to serve on the board of LINC.
  Her legacy reminds us that we must support and invest in our 
children's education from the earliest years, when it matters the most, 
and that universal literacy is critical to sustaining a healthy 
democracy. Mimi will truly be missed, and she has left her imprint on 
the thousands of readers she inspired through her advocacy. Mimi is 
survived by her children, grandchildren, and members of her LINC 
family. May her memory be a blessing.

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