RECOGNIZING RABBI ISRAEL ZOBERMAN'S ARTICLE

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                          HON. ELAINE G. LURIA

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 14, 2019

  Mrs. LURIA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rabbi Israel 
Zoberman and include in the Record this article, Learning a Shared 
History of Sorrow:

       On February 22, 2019, George Washington's birthday, during 
     Black History Month, I was privileged to travel to the 
     Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and 
     Culture, close to the Washington Monument on the inspiring 
     National Mall of our nation's capital. I was in good company 
     for the long-awaited tour organized by the Virginia Beach 
     Human Rights Commission. The 44 passengers on the bus 
     included members of the Commission, of which I am a grateful 
     member, representation of the Virginia Beach City Council and 
     the Mayor's office along with the Virginia Beach Police 
     Department, students and staff of the Virginia Beach City 
     Public Schools as well as leaders of the African American 
     Culture Center of Virginia Beach. What an impressive array of 
     civic commitment!
       As a family member of the Holocaust's surviving remnant of 
     European Jewry. I knew ahead of the searing visit of the 
     tragic bond between the African American experience and the 
     destruction of European Jewry, of the binding bond among all 
     affected by infectious racial, religious, ethnic, national 
     and gender hatred seeking to demean, dehumanize and demonize 
     the `other'. There is an unmistakable thread connecting the 
     2015 murder of 9 Black members at Emanuel African Methodist 
     Episcopal Church in Charleston S.C., with the gunning down of 
     11 Jewish worshippers at a Sabbath service in Pittsburg's 
     Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018; between the historical 
     lynchings of Blacks and the 2017 White Supremacist mayhem in 
     Charlottesville, Virginia, resulting in a murder, with the 
     dreaded shouts of ``Jews will not replace us!'' still ringing 
     in our ears. Vitriolic anti-Semitism is precipitously on the 
     rise in the United States and Europe.
       The imposing structure of the African American Museum 
     stands within sight of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. I 
     recalled my first visit there and the subsequent ones, when I 
     felt the overcoming sense of uncontrollable loss. It was the 
     same sensation of being assaulted to the core of my humanity 
     that I experienced traveling the challenging halls of the 
     African American Museum. Yet, I emerged from both encounters 
     with greater resolve to mend the world, Tikkun Olam, turning 
     blemishes into blessings. Who can remain untouched gazing at 
     the casket of brutally murdered 14-year-old Emmett Till and 
     the photo of his agonizing mother, the only exhibit we are 
     forbidden to photograph that we should focus uninterruptedly?
       We were guided by an incredible docent telling the story of 
     proud Africans forcibly and so cruelly separated from their 
     rich roots and brought to America--those who made it through 
     the terrifying Middle Passage--and brought here to be 
     violated of all that is sacred. Both they as slaves and 
     Europe's Jews were deemed sub-human. The former ones by 
     colonial powers and a new America promising to advance 
     liberty's cause, and the latter ones by a Germany regarded 
     the world's most civilized nation. The vital Jewish and 
     African American partnership during the Civil Rights Movement 
     of the 1960s, needs to be revitalized in the context of a 
     wider coalition to move America forward.
       I wish that both museums could be connected by a bridge or 
     a tunnel to visualize their inseparable bond. Recently heroic 
     French Father Patrick Desbois had a memorable presentation in 
     Virginia Beach. He is renowned for documenting unknown Nazi 
     massacres with local collaboration in occupied lands during 
     WWII along with ISIS's mass crimes in Iraq. He shares a 
     stunning statement in his unsettling book, In Broad Daylight, 
     that applies as well to the inhumane treatment of African 
     Americans, ``I feel a mounting disgust for our species. The 
     sort of nausea that makes you want to quit the human race.'' 
     But we dare not quit the human race. Great strides have taken 
     place though progress is an arduous work in the making. The 
     large number of visitors at the museum, particularly the many 
     students, is a hopeful sign. We dare not despair of past and 
     present pain, for that only serves the hateful aggressor, 
     while indifference, as Eli Wiesel taught us, only enables 
     evildoers to succeed.
       We need better tools to fight the scourge and resurgence of 
     all forms of hatred, bigotry and discrimination. Democracies 
     are at risk of backsliding, as was the case in Germany, and 
     require eternal vigilance.
       A precious teachable window is open to us following trying 
     circumstances, as we celebrate this year the 400th 
     Anniversary of Virginia with its dark shadows and shining 
     lights. Let us pledge, one diverse but united family, to rise 
     together higher and higher.

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