[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 11, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S3344]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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           TRIBUTE TO RABBI PHILIP LAZOWSKI AND RUTH LAZOWSKI

 Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Mr. President, I rise today to celebrate the 
95th birthday of Rabbi Philip Lazowski and the 90th birthday of his 
wife Ruth, both extraordinary Holocaust survivors and towering figures 
of Hartford's Jewish community.
  Rabbi Lazowski was born on June 13, 1930, in Bielica, Poland, and 
Ruth on June 9, 1935, in Zhetel in modern-day Belarus. He was the 
oldest of five, with three younger brothers and a younger sister. She 
was the oldest of two, with one younger sister.
  In June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded both towns, destroying their 
family homes and beginning mass killings of the Jewish population. On 
November 10, 1941, the remaining Jewish population in Bielica, 
including Philip and his family, were forced into Zhetel, where a 
ghetto was established in February 1942. Soon after, in April 1942, the 
Germans began rounding up the Jewish population in Zhetel. While 
Philip's family was able to find shelter in a cave under their home, 
Philip himself was caught by a German soldier. He was found by a woman, 
Miriam Rabinowitz, who took him in as her own along with her two 
daughters and saved his life.
  After August 6, 1942, when the Zhetel ghetto was liquidated, Philip 
and Ruth fled--separately. Philip fled first to Dworetz, reuniting with 
one of his brothers and his uncle, and then eventually to the woods 
near Bielica where his father was living. Ruth and the Rabinowitz 
family fled to the Nakryshki forest, where they helped to establish a 
family camp with other survivors from the area. Both Philip and Ruth 
managed to survive in the woods for 2 and a half years, enduring the 
incredibly harsh conditions of Eastern European winters.
  After the war, Philip, his father, and his brother left for the U.S. 
and settled in Brooklyn, NY, in 1947. Ruth and the Rabinowitz family 
settled in Hartford, CT. Philip attended Brooklyn College and the 
Yeshiva University Rabbinical School. At a wedding in New York, a 
chance conversation led him to be reunited with a member of the 
Rabinowitz family. Philip visited them in Hartford, where he was 
properly introduced to Ruth. Ruth and Philip fell in love and married 
in 1955. They have three sons Barry, Alan, and David and seven 
grandchildren.
  Philip was ordained as a Rabbi in 1962. Starting in Beth Shalom 
Synagogue, and then serving Beth Hillel from 1969 to 2000, Rabbi 
Lazowski quickly became a preeminent spiritual leader and mentor for 
the Hartford community. He is now rabbi emeritus of the Emanuel 
Synagogue in West Harford, a position he has held since 2001. Always 
active in his community, he has also been chaplain of the Connecticut 
State Senate, the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, and the 
Hartford Police. He has written over a dozen books, including his story 
of surviving the Holocaust, ``Faith and Destiny.'' Ruth has been an 
essential partner in all he has accomplished, a respected and loved 
community member. She has also been a dedicated Jewish educator in both 
Hartford and Bloomfield, CT.
  Rabbi Philip and Ruth Lazowski's story is truly one of the 
indomitable human spirit and miraculous survival, but also the power of 
love, even in the face of immense hatred. It is also a stark reminder 
of the great evils of the past and the necessity of fighting hate 
wherever we find it.
  I hope my colleagues will join me in celebrating Ruth Lazowski's 90th 
birthday and Rabbi Lazowski's 95th birthday and honoring their 
remarkable example of love, service, and leadership.

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