Jewish American Heritage Month

Floor Speech

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Ms. BONAMICI. Thank you so much for yielding me this time, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, and for your leadership in Jewish American Heritage Month. It is great to join you and our other colleagues here this evening.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize the contributions that so many Jewish Americans have made to our communities, to our States, to our country. There are many Jewish Americans who could be recognized here this evening and who deserve to be recognized for their contributions here this evening in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.

I rise to pay tribute to a great Jewish American, an Oregonian, Mr. Harold Schnitzer. Born in 1923, Harold Schnitzer was the fifth of seven children of Russian immigrants.

He was born to Rose and Sam Schnitzer, who took a junk business and turned it into a steel empire.

As a boy, Harold earned 25 cents a week for polishing metal at his father's scrap yard. He told his teachers at Lincoln High School in Portland that his future was in steel. By the age of 16, he came back here to the East and he was studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1944. He served in World War II. He dealt scrap metal during his time in the Army, and he was expected to take over the family business, but something happened. He didn't want to compete with his brothers. So he left to start his own real estate company, Harsch Investment Properties.

Throughout his life, Harold, along with his wife Arlene Schnitzer, generously supported education, health care, and cultural and Jewish institutions and organizations not only in Portland, but throughout the State of Oregon. Harold Schnitzer lost his life last year in 2011 at the age of 87. There is no question that he embodied tikkun olam. He made the world a better place.

I want to thank you for this opportunity, Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, to pay tribute to a great Jewish American, but also to say thank you again for making Jewish American Heritage Month a reality so that others can learn about the contributions of Jewish Americans around this great country.

Thank you again for this opportunity.

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