January 29, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 19 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session

[Page H644]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WELCOMING RABBI AVRAHAM HAKOHEN ``ROMI'' COHN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Rose) is recognized for 1 minute.
  There was no objection.
  Mr. ROSE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rabbi 
Romi Cohn, a leader on Staten Island and a dear, dear friend.
  Rabbi Cohn has dedicated his life to Jewish culture and heritage and 
built a renowned career as a mohel in New York City for over 25 years. 
I am especially honored to welcome Rabbi Cohn this week as we remember 
the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
  Rabbi Cohn's career is merely a continuation of a lifetime of 
fighting for the Jewish faith. His early life was uprooted by the rise 
of the Nazi Party, their invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the outbreak 
of World War II. Under Nazi rule, he saw the Hitler Youth attack his 
father in the street.
  When war broke out, he joined the partisans fighting Nazi tyranny. At 
15 years old, Romi was the youngest member of the Czechoslovakian 
partisan forces. Among other feats, he helped save 56 Jewish families 
escape the horrors of the Holocaust.
  He fought with the partisans until the end of the war and then went 
in search of his own family. Of his parents and six siblings, only his 
father and two sisters had survived.
  Rabbi Cohn saw how a democracy can be corrupted into a fascist 
dictatorship and what happens when anti-Semitism is allowed to fester.
  Sadly, across this country, we see an alarming rise in anti-Semitism 
and hatred. Rabbi Cohn's legacy reminds us never to accept bigotry, not 
when we see it in the street, not when we saw it in the Halls of 
Congress, not when we see it anywhere. Our freedoms are not free. We 
must fight for them or risk losing them.
  Rabbi Cohn is a model and example for all of us to follow, and I 
thank him for his extraordinary life of service.

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