Tom Lantos
(right) is congratulated
by board member Phil Friedman. |
SHAARE ZEDEK MEDICAL CENTER
Coming
To America
With A Single Salami
By
Nina and Tim Boxer
 OM
LANTOS, whose life was saved in Budapest thanks to Raul
Wallenberg, has no doubt that the current scourge of terrorism
will end just like the Holocaust did.
“The end of the movie will be the defeat of
terrorism,” the congressman said at a dinner of the American
Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center at the Grand
Hyatt in New York.
“The war against Saddam Hussein is
the first move in President George W. Bush’s vision of a
world without dictatorships. No one could have been sure that
Hitler wouldn’t win, or Stalin wouldn’t win. But we all can be
sure that Osama bin Laden will not win.”
Lantos, 75, came to the U.S. in 1947 with not
a penny in his pocket, except for a single salami—which was
confiscated by Customs. And now he’s in his 12th year
as a Democratic representative from California.
Menno Ratzker, president of the American
Committee, presented awards to Lantos, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin,
Dr. David Kelsen, Al H. Sutton and Tova Leidesdorf.
With almost 600 people in attendance, the dinner raised a
record-breaking one million dollars for the hospital in Jerusalem.
Al
Sutton (l-r), with fellow honorees
Tova Leidesdorf, Rabbi Shmuel
Goldin and
Dr. David Kelsen |
Speaking of her illustrious family, Tova
recalled her two husbands and their contribution to history.
“My first husband, Arthur Leidesdorf,
told me how his father Sam helped establish Israel Bonds by
personally guaranteeing $500 million to David Rockefeller.”
She asked Sam why he helped create the United
Negro College Fund, the Institute for Advanced Studies at
Princeton, brought Albert Einstein to this country, and
worked with Cardinal Spellman to bring Christians and Jews
together.
“It takes a world to create people and
people to create a world,” Sam answered. “We need to live
together in harmony.”
Tova told about accompanying her second
husband, Erwin Herling, on a visit to King Hussein
at his palace in Jordan, where she said, “Look at the three of
us. You are a Middle East king, Erwin is an Auschwitz survivor and
I’m a sabra from Haifa. Yet we are sitting here like family and
talking the same language. Shouldn’t we be able to have
peace?”
“I would like nothing better,” Hussein
replied. “If I am sick I would like to come to Shaare Zedek
Hospital in Jerusalem.”
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