THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES RABBI IRVING GREENBERG AS CHAIR OF THE UNITED

STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL COUNCIL

The President today announced his intent to appoint Rabbi Irving Greenberg as Chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, of New York, New York, is one of the nation's most respected scholars of Jewish thought. Since 1997 he has served as President of the Jewish Life Network. From 1979 to 1997, he was founding President of CLAL- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Earlier, Rabbi Greenberg served as a professor and chairman of the Department of Jewish Studies at the City College of New York, and taught and served as chairman of the Department of History at Yeshiva University. Rabbi Greenberg has been at the forefront of higher academic education for over 35 years. In 1975, he, along with Elie Wiesel, founded Zachor, a Holocaust Resource Center and served as executive Director of the President's Commission on the Holocaust under President Carter. Rabbi Greenberg also served as a member of the U.S. Holocaust Council from 1980 to 1988, and was again appointed to the Council by President Clinton in 1997. Rabbi Greenberg has written extensively on the Holocaust and Jewish matters. His most recent book is Living in the Image of God.

Irving Greenberg was ordained as a Rabbi by the Beth Joseph Rabbinical Seminary in 1953, received a B.A., summa cum laude from Brooklyn College and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Council was established in 1979 to provide for the annual commemoration and observance of the Days of Remembrance of the Holocaust, and to construct and operate a living memorial to its victims. The Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in 1993.

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