[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 23 (Monday, February 2, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E90-E91]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            RECOGNIZING REMARKS OF RABBI DR. ISRAEL ZOBERMAN

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. JENNIFER A. KIGGANS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 2, 2026

  Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record 
remarks submitted at the request of a Virginia Beach constituent, Rabbi 
Dr. Israel Zoberman of Temple Lev Tikvah, and are a reflection of his 
views:

       I found refuge every morning hiding
       Under my grandpa's inviting, embracing Tallit
       Of black and white woven of the tapestry
       Of a survivor's spared life,
       A wondrous cloth, never abandoned nor lost,
       He managed to safeguard on the run
       Twice from Poland, in Siberian exile and Kazakhstan,
       Stained by flowing tears,
       The beauty marks of refugees,
       An added layer of essential warmth
       Which sustained a ravaged body and tested soul,
       Wrapping me, his other saved possession,
       In a magical garb whose sacred fringes I playfully 
     unraveled,
       Ever since attempting together tie what
       Torn away is forever gone.
       The youngest member at the Shoah (Holocaust) survivors'
       Minyan (quorum) in Germany's Wetzlar Displaced Persons 
     Camp,
       I hear louder and louder in the dark
       With elapsed some eighty years,
       The adults' heartfelt davening (praying) with painful 
     groaning

[[Page E91]]

       Of weighing memories while searching for the light,
       Gratefully feeling still the loving hands faithfully
       Placed on my curly head by proud Grandpa Zvi,
       Son of martyred Rabbi Yaacov and Dena of Zamosc,
       With radiant grandma Rachel smilingly approving,
       Reassuring their first grandchild,
       A refugee like Father Abraham and Mother Sara,
       Whose birth was surely a divine sign of a threatened
       Covenant renewed, to protect me always with a Tallit
       Of reaffirmed life even if God's blessing would not.

       Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is the founder and spiritual 
     leader of Temple Lev Tikvah as well as Honorary Senior Rabbi 
     Scholar at Eastern Shore Chapel, both in Virginia Beach.

                          ____________________