[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1991, Book I)]
[June 16, 1991]
[Pages 677-680]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks at the Simon Wiesenthal Center Dinner in Los Angeles, California
June 16, 1991

    Thank you all very much. Let me first thank my dear friend, Jerry 
Weintraub, for that generous introduction. And thanks to Wilson Phillips 
for the anthem so beautifully done. My thanks to Tony Danza for being 
here. [Laughter] Had to go out and get a haircut so we would recognize 
him. [Laughter] But what a good man he is.
    And Barbara and I are just delighted to be here tonight. We wanted 
to specially be here to salute our--yours and our--guest of honor. As 
you may know, Arnold--Arnold Schwarzenegger--spent a day with us up at 
Camp David, and competing with Barbara in tobogganing, she broke her 
leg. [Laughter] Then, Arnold spent a day with us at the White House 
promoting fitness, and I ended up in the hospital with arterial 
fibrillation, or something like that. [Laughter] You'll never eat lunch 
in my town again, Arnold. [Laughter] But I'm delighted to see you. Come 
to think of it, you could be my special emissary to Congress. [Laughter] 
Talk about ``The Terminator.''
    Honestly, though, this guy is a wonderful choice, wonderful choice, 
for your National Leadership Award. He embodies the good, essential 
values of this world, values like caring and fairness and faith. He's 
simply a decent, nice human being. And congratulations, my friend. And 
thank you for honoring this wonderful American.
    I also want to pay a special tribute to Gayle Wilson. Sorry Pete 
couldn't be with us tonight; he's up wrestling with the budget problems. 
And to Senator John Seymour, our wonderful new Senator in the United 
States Senate; to David Dreier, who's with us tonight--down here--a fine 
Member of the United States Congress. I'm told Mayor Bradley was to be 
here. I haven't seen him. But anyway, I wanted to salute him. We're in 
his city and delighted to be here. Is he there? Well, Tom, I can't see 
you, but nice to see you.
    And all the friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center who are here tonight. 
The Counsel General of Israel is with us, Ron Ronen. And it's a 
particular pleasure to see our friend, the Bushes' friend, Rabbi Hier, 
again. Thank you, sir, for that honor, that beautiful cup. And let me 
just say that your vision, your conscience, and commitment set a 
challenge for us all. I will cherish this sacred gift of this Cup of 
Elijah. To you, ``I lift up the cup of redemption in thanks and 
gratitude.''
    Let me say that I've heard that at Seder this Cup of Elijah is 
filled, as he just said, with wine and with the promise of redemption. I 
know the verse that says Elijah ``shall turn the heart of the parents to 
the children, and the heart of the children to their parents.'' I really 
hope that this symbolic

[[Page 678]]

gift can challenge us to do the same, to reclaim our soul through the 
love of the human family, a love borne of remembrance.
    Let me just make a few comments, eating before the broccoli is 
served--[laughter]--and asking your forgiveness for pushing on. We have 
a big day tomorrow, off in Colorado and Wisconsin, before returning to 
Washington. So, please forgive us. But let me just say a word about this 
Center and for the man it's named for. The extraordinary hero that this 
center honors is our living embodiment of remembrance. The two pledges 
of Simon Wiesenthal's life inspire us all--``Never forget'' and ``Never 
again.''
    He reminds us that we as a people must study closely the lessons of 
the concentration camps. And, yes, like many here, Barbara and I have 
been to Auschwitz. We've seen the images of human evil. And literally, 
when I left, I left part of me. But I took something away in its place: 
the determination not just to remember but also to act.
    I say this to you as a World War II veteran, as an American, and now 
as President of the United States: The haunting images compel us to 
guard against tyranny and inhumanity. Remembering makes us strong. 
Remembering makes us act.
    But there's something else. We must also remember something more 
powerful than the horror: the triumph of the inextinguishable human 
spirit. Those who survived the Holocaust could have sunk into hate and 
revenge. Instead, they lifted themselves and all of humanity toward a 
greater goal. I believe that the ultimate lesson here is the 
transcendent glory of survival. Hope triumphed over horror. Life 
triumphed over death.
    And we must also remember the story of a single life. In this case, 
the story of a great man named Raoul Wallenberg, a story brought to the 
conscience of the world by another great man, the one whose name this 
center bears. When I was over with Barbara in Budapest we went to 
Raoul's memorial to pay tribute. His actions embodied the highest ideals 
of human decency and morality, a hero of our times. We owe him not only 
tribute, not only remembrance, but also commitment, to have a full and 
final accounting of his precious life.
    We all know Elie Wiesel. He dedicates his life to the Holocaust and 
its victims because ``anyone who does not remember betrays them again.'' 
The freedom we enjoy carries a profound responsibility. Now the victims 
of other human rights abuses call to us daily from across the globe. In 
the memory of the millions who died, we must not forget. We must not 
close our hearts. We must not fail to act.
    We've been acting for years to promote freedom in the Soviet Union, 
including the freedoms of religion and emigration. That action has paid 
off. Jews in the Soviet Union can now study Hebrew. Jews who choose to 
leave can do so. Some delays, admittedly, but they can leave. Hundreds 
of thousands have made aliyah to Israel. This is freedom in action.
    In the Gulf, Simon Wiesenthal was among the first to speak out 
against Saddam Hussein's brutality. He said: ``Silence is admittance. We 
cannot tolerate silence.'' It was because of Saddam's aggression that we 
made our stand in the Persian Gulf. The world had ignored the brewing 
madness 50 years ago. We would not make the same mistake this time. It 
was a moral imperative to act.
    As I contemplated as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces what 
action to take against Saddam Hussein's aggression, I thought of the 
world's inaction those many years ago when first the army and then the 
SS marched into Poland. It was on my mind as I had to make this fateful 
decision to send our sons and daughters into combat in the Gulf.
    And then there's exciting and emotional freeing of the Ethiopian 
Jews that was referred to a minute ago. Rudy Boschwitz, a former United 
States Senator, a wonderful man, was our special emissary. Recently in 
the Rose Garden, I was privileged to honor him, Bob Frasure of the 
National Security Council, Irvin Hicks of the State Department, Robert 
Houdek there in our Embassy--embattled Embassy in Addis Ababa. For their 
extraordinary actions we honored them, helping in what turned out to be 
one of the most intensive humanitarian air- lifts 
in history. Thanks in considerable part to

[[Page 679]]

the efforts of the United States--a lot of people in the United States--
the Ethiopian Jews were delivered from harm's way within 30 hours, 
reunited with loved ones, and given the opportunity to begin new lives 
in Israel. What a joyous, wonderful homecoming.
    These events remind us that Israel was created as a refuge for Jews 
who face or flee persecution. So, our challenge is to make Israel truly 
secure. We learned the hard lesson that geography alone cannot guarantee 
security for Israel. We've learned that military power alone cannot 
guarantee her security. Israel and her neighbors will enjoy true and 
lasting security only when they achieve genuine reconciliation. And 
that's the goal behind the peace initiative that I launched 3 months 
ago.
    Our Secretary of State has worked tirelessly to follow up, and 
direct negotiations between Israel and her neighbors no longer seem such 
a distant dream. The process we have designed can promote peace, but 
only if the parties in the region muster the political will to make it 
happen. If they do, the issues that divide them will fall away, and the 
Middle East at last can begin the journey toward lasting peace.
    We're here tonight in honor of a place that drives us to use the 
pain of our past literally to forge a better future. The Simon 
Wiesenthal Center is not just a museum, although its vivid images will 
never let the past fade. It's also an activist organization of more than 
one million members, one million separate voices bound together in 
single purpose: the call for all lives to have meaning, dignity, and 
hope.
    I must say that was running through my mind when the Holocaust 
survivors brought in the Mauthausen flag. What a story, those men and 
women creating out of scraps this symbol of the values that gave them 
hope. Just think, those values were the ones upon which this country was 
founded, ones we too often take for granted, I'm afraid, in our busy 
lives. I just wish that every American could hear their story. I wish 
every American could see this flag and feel the same emotion that I felt 
when these survivors brought it to this stage.
    The values those courageous Jewish victims saw symbolized in our 
flag became the ones on which they founded their new homeland. These 
shared values unite our country and Israel in an extraordinary, special 
kinship--values like freedom, democracy, morality, respect, deeply 
rooted traditions of tolerance, individual rights, and liberties. Our 
countries have forged an unprecedented bond, a bond of shared ideals, 
shared struggles, shared commitments.
    Tonight, I want to return to those essential, basic values and 
pledge America's eternal vigilance for justice, peace, and human rights 
throughout the world. As your President, I say there is no room in 
America for indifference. The Holocaust must never be dehumanized or 
dismissed. We pledge it will also never be forgotten.
    There is no room in this country for hate crimes. We must raise our 
voices and the full force of our law against every hate group, 
desecrater and demagog, brown shirt or white sheet. We will not be 
fooled by a change in disguise if corruption and inhumanity still lie 
buried in their hearts.
    There is no room--no room at all--in America for bigotry. And we 
will stand firm against intolerance, racism, and discrimination in any 
form or any place: in our cities, in our media, in our minds, in our 
hearts. And we pledge to expose the corrosive hatred of bigotry wherever 
it festers and to rid our land of it for our children's sake.
    There is no room in our America, in our world, for anti-Semitism. 
The insidious ugliness of this cancer destroys the human spirit. We must 
root it out and conquer it wherever it may start to grow.
    There is no room in our world for persecution of a people. We must 
be committed to the security, opportunity, and identity for all peoples 
of the world.
    There's no room in our world for persecution of a nation. Israel's 
survival will be guaranteed. And the best way to do that is through a 
just and lasting peace.
    And above all, we must, each of us, embody in our lives the lesson 
of this wonderful center so brilliantly expressed by its hero, Simon 
Wiesenthal, who reminds us: ``Freedom is not a gift from Heaven. One 
must fight for it every day.'' And that, my friends, is our final and 
most important pledge.

[[Page 680]]

    Thank you very much for the privilege of sharing this evening with 
you and for the warmth of your friendship, for the dedication of your 
purpose. And may God bless the United States, the greatest country on 
the face of the Earth. Thank you very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 7:20 p.m. in the Los 
                        Angeles Ballroom at the Century Plaza Hotel. In 
                        his remarks, he referred to Jerry Weintraub and 
                        Rabbi Marvin Hier, board member and dean of the 
                        Simon Wiesenthal Center; the singing group 
                        Wilson Phillips; actor Tony Danza, master of 
                        ceremonies for the dinner; Arnold 
                        Schwarzenegger, Chairman of the President's 
                        Counsel on Physical Fitness and Sports; Gayle 
                        Wilson, wife of Gov. Pete Wilson of California; 
                        Senator John Seymour; Representative David 
                        Dreier; Thomas Bradley, mayor of Los Angeles; 
                        Ron Ronen, Counsel General of Israel; 
                        humanitarians Simon Wiesenthal and Elie Wiesel; 
                        Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg; President 
                        Saddam Hussein of Iraq; former Senator Rudy 
                        Boschwitz; Robert C. Frasure, National Security 
                        Council Director for African Affairs; Irvin 
                        Hicks, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for 
                        African Affairs; Robert G. Houdek, Charge 
                        d'Affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia; and 
                        Secretary of State James A. Baker III.