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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
IN CELEBRATION OF JERRY FISCHER
______
HON. JOE COURTNEY
of connecticut
in the house of representatives
Friday, August 9, 2019
Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the career of Jerry
Fischer, a dedicated servant and defender of the Jewish community, who
retired as executive director of the Jewish Federation of Eastern
Connecticut on June 30, 2019, after leading the Federation since 1984.
Jerry lives in the state of Connecticut, where he has acted as a
strengthening and unifying force for the state's Jewish community for
thirty-five years.
Jerry is, and always has been, a bastion for the preservation and
prosperity of Connecticut's Jewish constituents. In his final year-end
report, he told the Jewish Federation's board of directors that the
goal his three-decade career was ``to bring acts of loving kindness
into the community and the world.'' Native to Washington Heights, at 17
years old Jerry made the journey from New York City to Israel, where he
spent a year, eventually making the decision to join the Israeli army
for the Six Day War of June 1967. He cited this decision as a response
to the Holocaust, the genocide that brutally murdered 6 million of his
own people. His childhood in Washington Heights places him in one of
the epicenters of the civil rights movements; Jerry took this
experience and his time in Israel to create a career of leadership
based in compassion and justice.
Determined to push the Jewish community and the world forward, rather
than back, Jerry stood up in the face of Holocaust skeptics and deniers
and began the Encountering Survivors program, which brought Holocaust
survivors and their family members face to face with high school
students so that their stories of persecution and survival may live on
through younger generations. In one such case, Jerry recruited 91-year-
old Rae Gawendo, a Jewish refugee who arrived in Connecticut in the
wake of the second World War, and, with the help of the Jewish
Agricultural Society, started a chicken farm with her husband Jacob.
Gawendo was sent from the Vilna ghetto to the Klooga work camp in 1942,
where she was forced to work in a sawmill that processed the very logs
used to bum Jewish bodies. She first spoke about her nightmare at a
Holocaust commemoration arranged by Jerry Fischer, who later
orchestrated meetings of small groups of students in her home, who
listened with rapt attention as she recounted the truth of her life--
before, during, and after the war. Through interactions like these,
Jerry created lasting, crucial bonds between generations that
solidified his place among the country's leaders in indisputably
preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
Madam Speaker, Jerry has also been a positive voice in Southeastern
Connecticut moral and social life, promoting solidarity with other
religious communities. Every Martin Luther King Day he has marched with
Bishop Watts of the Shiloh Baptist Church and hundreds of other
shivering members of the New London County community to an ecumenical
observance of Martin Luther King's life and legacy. He has organized
public forums to discuss the Middle East conflict, and has been a voice
of moderation, supporting a two-state solution as a path to peace. He
has led thousands of Eastern Connecticut residents on trips to the
Middle East, and his fluency in Hebrew and encyclopedic knowledge of
the Holy Land educated all of his guests on the wonder and deep
spiritual history of that region. I personally experienced that a few
years back when he took me through Jerusalem and was equally conversant
on the Wailing Wall, Dome of the Rock, and the Stations of the Cross in
a spellbinding tour that I will never forget. He also rescued me from
an unscrupulous vendor in the marketplace who tried to overcharge me
for some religious souvenirs I naively almost overpaid for. Thanks
again Jerry.
Jerry has also been there to support the community in sad and tragic
moments. After the sickening mass shooting at the Tree of Life
Synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2018, Jerry joined local
rabbis, ministers, imams and priests to deliver a message of love and
resolve to end senseless hate and gun violence in the media and at
public events. He is a quintessential leader for all of us in Eastern
Connecticut and we have been blessed by his grace and wisdom.
Madam Speaker, although Jerry is stepping down as Executive Director,
he plans to continue to be an active member of the Jewish community. In
an editorial detailing the highlights of his career, The New London Day
wrote, ``He and his wife Christine will remain in the area, and we
suspect his mitzvahs--his acts of loving kindness--will continue,
because that's who Jerry Fischer is.'' I would ask the House to please
join me in extending our deepest gratitude to Jerry for his years of
service and dedication to the Jewish community.
