Welcome Back to Alaska, Mr. Consul General

WELCOME BACK TO ALASKA, MR. CONSUL GENERAL

    Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, next week the people of Alaska will welcome Mr. Yossi Amrani, the Consul General of the State of Israel for the Pacific Northwest, back to our State. He will begin his trip in Fairbanks, meeting with students and members of the community at the University of Alaska, visiting with members of Congregation Or Hatzafon, which has the northernmost synagogue building in the world, and speaking to the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce. He will also visit Anchorage on this trip and I look forward to meeting with him then.

    This is not Mr. Amrani's first visit to my State, but it is his first visit to Fairbanks, the "Golden Heart City." Although the Fairbanks Jewish community is small in numbers, the fundamental Jewish values of tikkun olam, making the world a better place; tzedakah, charity; and chesed, kindness, are deeply ingrained in the Fairbanks culture, as they are in the culture of Alaska as a whole.

    Like the Fairbanks Jewish community, the Alaska Jewish community is small in numbers, but large in spirit. In the late 1990s, Professor Bernard Reisman from Brandeis University visited Alaska on several occasions to learn more about our Jewish community. He concluded that in virtually all areas, the Alaska Jewish community has a higher level of identity than do American Jews generally. He found this to be true not only in places like Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau, which have functioning congregations, but also in the smaller communities, where "conveners" organize regular get togethers, especially on Jewish holidays.

    Members of the Jewish community occupy a prominent role in the social, economic, cultural and political life of Alaska. A few weeks ago, I welcomed the internationally known holocaust scholar, Dr. Michael Schuldiner of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, to my office in Washington. Dr. Schuldiner discussed his work with the United States Holocaust Memorial. Another UAF scholar, Dr. Michael Krauss, has worked closely with the Alaska congressional delegation for many years in efforts to preserve Alaska Native languages. And let us not forget the many contributions of the Gottstein family to virtually every aspect of Alaska's fabric.

    This is not a new phenomenon. The beautiful municipal library in Anchorage is named for Zachary J. Loussac, a Russian Jewish immigrant, who served as Mayor of Anchorage. The Girl Scout camp in Fairbanks is named for Jessie Bloom, who along with her husband Robert, are regarded as the founding leaders of the Fairbanks Jewish community. In 1926, Jessie started the first Girl Scout troop in Alaska, while Robert was a founder of what was later to become the University of Alaska. Our striking new courthouse in Fairbanks is named for Jay Rabinowitz who served for many years on the Alaska Supreme Court.

    The survival of the State of Israel is important to the people of Alaska as it is to the American Jewish community and the American people. In Washington, I stand shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues in praying for peace in the Middle East while standing firm on the principle that terrorism is morally and politically unacceptable. Terrorism will not undo Israel's future. When the Senate returns in July, it will consider comprehensive energy legislation and I am hopeful that my amendment to guarantee that Israel will have a secure source of petroleum in the event it cannot independently acquire it due to an embargo will be in the bill when it passes the Senate.

    During this visit to Alaska, as on previous visits, the Consul General will encounter the vast natural beauty of our state. But he will also discover, as in previous visits, that it is the people of Alaska that make this place truly special. Shalom, Mr. Consul General. I hope that you will visit with Alaskans often.

    Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the message of Consul General Yossi Amrani be printed in the RECORD.

    There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows: