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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release June 29, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES FOUR MEMBER TO THE UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST

MEMORIAL COUNCIL

President Clinton today announced his intent to appoint Kitty Dukakis, Michael C. Gelman, Stephen D. Susman, and Burton P. Resnick to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Ms. Kitty Dukakis, of Boston, Massachusetts, is the former First Lady of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She was a member of the original Holocaust Memorial Council, established in 1979. Ms. Dukakis was the Co-Chair of the Governor's Commission on the Homeless from 1983-1990. She also served on the Executive Boards of Refugees International and the Refugee Policy Committee from 1981-1992. Additionally, Ms. Dukakis has led several fact missions to the Thai/Cambodian border, working for the release of 300 Cambodian orphans. She is also the author of Now You Know, an account of the 1988 presidential campaign. Ms. Dukakis will be co-teaching a course at Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles in the spring semester of 2001 about the Holocaust and the Armenian genocide. Ms. Dukakis received a B.S. from Lesley College and a Masters in Social Work from Boston University.

Mr. Michael C. Gelman, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, is a Certified Public Accountant and President of the accounting firm of Gelman, Rosenberg & Freedman. He serves as Campaign Chair for The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and is also on the boards of several organizations, including the United Jewish Endowment Fund, the Jewish Social Service Agency and the Foundation for Masorti Judaism. In 1996 Governor Parris N. Glendening appointed him to the Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland. Mr. Gelman received his B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Mr. Stephen D. Susman, of Houston, Texas is the founder and managing partner of Susman Godfrey, LLP, a nationally known firm specializing in large-scale complex litigation. Additionally, he has served as an adjutant professor at the University of Texas Law School and is on the Council of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association. Mr. Susman and his late wife, Karen, endowed the Karen & Stephen Susman Hall, Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale University, the Harry Susman Summer Scholarship in Israel Scholarship at Yale and founded the Helen D. Susman Woman of Prominence Award at the American Jewish Community. Several members of the immediate family of Karen Susman escaped from Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1940, settling in Austin, Texas. Mr. Susman received his achelor's degree from Yale University and his law degree from the University of Texas. Following his graduation from law school, he clerked for Judge John R. Brown of the Firth Circuit and later for Justice Hugo Black of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Burton P. Resnick, of New York City, New York, is Chairman and CEO of Jack Resnick & Sons, Inc., a New York real estate development firm founded in 1928 by his late father. He is also Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Governors of the Real Estate Board of New York. Mr. Resnick is Chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Yeshiva University and the Board of Overseers of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and is also on the boards of Montefiore Hospital Medical Center and Beth Israel Medical Center. Additionally, he served as National Campaign Chairman of State of Israel Bonds and is presently Chair of the Board of Directors of Development Corporation for Israel/State of Israel Bonds. Mr. Resnik received a B.A. from the University of Chicago.

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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