Wallenberg Congressional Luncheon, July 11

Wallenberg Congressional Luncheon, July 11

The Raoul Wallenberg Centennial Cel-
ebration Commission has much to be
excited about. After tirelessly advocating
in Congress, the RWCCC obtained two-
thirds of the Senate for co-sponsorship
of the Raoul Wallenberg Centennial Cel-
ebration Act. The bill awards Raoul Wal-
lenberg the highest civilian award, the
Congressional Gold Medal, for risking
his life to save 100,000 Jews during the
waning days of the Holocaust. In hon-
or of the momentous occasion, the RW-
CCC will be hosting, on July 11, a Con-
gressional Celebratory Luncheon on
Capitol Hill. The luncheon will feature
prominent senators including Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand, who introduced the
legislation, Senator Johnny Isakson (R-
GA), Senator Orren Hatch (R-UT), Senator
Ron Wyden (D-OR), Senator Daniel In-
ouye (D-HI), Congressman Jerrold Nadler
(D-NY), and other members of Congress
who will pay tribute to the heroic efforts
of Wallenberg. The event will remind fu-
ture generations how important it is to
look beyond ourselves. It will be chaired
by Andrew Friedman, Esq., who serves
on the LA Fire Department Board.
A special award will be presented to
individuals from the RWCCC Board of
Governors for their unwavering support
of the Raoul Wallenberg Commission.
Stanley Black is the co-founder of KB
Management and a philanthropist. The
charitable William Nussen is the presi-
dent of Designs by FMC. Ken Abramow-
itz is cofounder and managing general
partner of NGN Capital. He campaigns
for Israel in the hostile global environ-
ment. The NYC real estate executive Pe-
ter Rebenwurzel’s father-in-law was res-
cued by Wallenberg. His father provided
to the Budapest Ghetto. Abe Biderman
is managing director of Eagle Advisers,
Inc. and chairs Shuvu/Return, a net-
work of schools in Israel for Russian im-
migrants. Leon Goldenberg, a child of
Holocaust survivors, educates the pub-
lic of the heroism of Wallenberg. Sidney
Greenberger is CEO of AristaCare and a
strong supporter of legislation relating
to Wallenberg. Stanley Treitel, a leader
in the Los Angeles community, has ad-
vised numerous elected officials on the
U.S.-Israel relationship. The Turkish in-
vestment banker Erol User is a human
rights advocate. Healthplus Amerigroup
and Flushing Bank will also be recog-
nized for their corporate sponsorship
of the RWCCC.
The luncheon, coordinated by The
Friedlander Group, will be honoring
Andrew E. Stevens, Emil Fish, and Dr.
David Moskovits. Andrew E. Stevens,
originally from Budapest, survived the
Holocaust by using forged documents.
Refusing to hide quietly, Stevens risked
his life to forge and distribute false doc-
uments to other Hungarians whose
lives were in danger. Once, Raoul Wal-
lenberg complained that he ran out of
the official forms he had been using
to save lives. The Hungarian resistance
leader, Otto Komoly, suggested forged
documents and Wallenberg agreed
whereas Stevens delivered them to his
office. Stevens detailed his survival and
participation in the underground resis-
tance movement in his book Rebel with
a Cause, published by Allied Artists.
Emil Fish, also a Holocaust survi-
vor, spent the war in the concentra-
tion camp, Bergen-Belsen. Sixty years
after being liberated, Fish returned to
his hometown, Bardejov, Slovakia, with
his wife and son in June 2005. After see-
ing the disrepair and poor conditions
of the Jewish cemetery and synagogue,
he founded the nonprofit organization,
Bardejov Jewish Preservation Commit-
tee. The organization restores Jewish
properties of Bardejov and advances
knowledge of Jewish ancestry and her-
itage. On December 23, 2009 he was ap-
pointed to the Commission for the Pres-
ervation of America’s Heritage Abroad
by President Obama.
The third honoree, Dr. David Moskov-
its, is president of the Endowment for
Democracy in Eastern Europe. He has
also established the American Endow-
ment School, the first foreign national
Jewish school in Hungary, a former So-
viet satellite country. The school’s grad-
uates boast of having an extensive secu-
lar education, as well as a strong sense of
identity with their Jewish heritage. He
is the recipient of many awards around
the world including the Jerusalem Prize,
the first officer’s award of the govern-
ment of Hungary, and the entrepreneur
of the year award. President Reagan de-
scribed Dr. Moskovits as a “true cham-
pion for democracy and humanitarian
causes in East-Central Europe.”
The RWCCC will be marking the six-
tieth anniversary of the historic agree-
ment between Germany and The Con-
ference on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany, better known as the
Claims Conference. The organization
persuaded West Germany to pay resti-
tution to Jewish victims of Nazism. The
luncheon will pay tribute to its lead-
ers who continue to press Germany to
meet its moral obligation to the Holo-
caust survivors.
A major announcement will be made
at the luncheon regarding the legisla-
tion regarding Raoul Wallenberg with
the Congressional Gold Medal.