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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 18, 2001

               PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES 14 MEMBERS OF THE
                UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL COUNCIL

     President Clinton announced today his intention to appoint Maya

Angelou, Edgar Bronfman, Sr., Gila Bronner, Norman Brownstein, Stuart Eizenstat, William Gray III, Myron Cherry, Frank Lautenberg, Ruth Mandel, Harvey Meyerhoff, Set Momjian, Nathan Shapell, Eli Wiesel and Karen Winnick as members of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Dr. Maya Angelou, of Winston Salem, North Carolina, is a noted author, actor, dancer and poet. She has served as the Reynolds' Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University since 1981. Among her best-known works are I Know Why the Caged Bird Signs, Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie, The Heart of a Woman and Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now. Dr. Angelou wrote and delivered the poem On the Pulse of Morning for President Clinton's inauguration in 1993, and in 2000, was awarded the National Medal of Arts.

Mr. Edgar M. Bronfman, Sr., of New York, New York, is a member of the Board of Directors of Vivendi Universal and Chairman of The Samuel Bronfman Foundation, Inc. In 1998, he was appointed by President Clinton as Chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. In 1999, Mr. Bronfman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. He also is President of the World Jewish Congress, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and is Chairman of the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life (Hillel).

Ms. Gila Bronner, of Chicago, Illinois, is the President and CEO of Bronner Group, LLC, an Internet and computer training and organization change consulting firm. She was recently appointed to the City of Chicago Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors, and she also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and is a member of the Illinois Local Government Advisory Board and the Illinois State Government Accountability Council.

Mr. Norman Brownstein, of Englewood, Colorado, is Chair of the Board of the legal firm of Brownstein Hyatt & Farber, and was recently named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America. He also is a Director of the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, a Trustee of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and a Vice President of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Previously, Mr. Brownstein was the director of the Denver Symphony and the Rose Medical Center.

The Honorable Stuart E. Eizenstat, of Chevy Chase, Maryland, is currently Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. From June 1997 to July 1999 he served as Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs. From April 1996 to June 1997, he was Under Secretary of Commerce of International Trade Administration, and from September 1993 to April 1996 was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union. Deputy Secretary Eizenstat also has been a partner in the law firm of Goldstein, Frazer and Murphy, and was President Carter's chief domestic policy adviser from 1977 to 1981.

The Honorable William H. Gray, III, of Vienna, Virginia, is President and CEO of The College Fund/UNCF. Previously, he served in the United States Congress and was Chair of the House Budget Committee, Chair of the Democratic Caucus and Majority Whip. In 1994, he was a Special Adviser to President Clinton on Haiti. Prior to his tenure in Congress, Mr. Gray taught at St. Peter's College, Jersey City State College, Montclair State College, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and Temple University. Additionally, he was pastor of the Bright Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia.

Mr. Myron Cherry of Chicago, Illinois, is the founder of Cherry & Flynn, a law firm specializing in civil litigation. The firm's practice specializes in all areas of commercial litigation, including securities, contract, environment corporate governance, libel and slander, civil rights, and intellectual property classes. Mr. Cherry has over 30 years experience as a trial lawyer and is a member of the bars in the states of Illinois, California, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. He has presented cases before the United States Supreme Court, and several districts of Columbia Circuit Courts of Appeal, and Illinois state courts. Mr. Cherry is active in various political and charitable activities having served as: a Trustee of the Democratic National Committee, and twice on the United States Senate Judicial Nominations Committee for Illinois. Mr. Cherry received his B.S. from the University of Illinois, and an undergraduate B.S. in Law from Northwestern University. He was editor of the Northwestern Law Review where he received his L.L.B.

The Honorable Frank R. Lautenberg, of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, retired as United States Senator from New Jersey in 2000. Prior to his election to the Senate, he was Chairman and CEO of Automatic Data Processing (ADP), a company that he co-founded. Originally elected to the Senate in 1982, he was responsible for a number of significant pieces of legislation over his three terms in the areas of health, safety, security and transportation, including establishing 21 as the national legal drinking age, banning smoking on airplanes, setting .08 blood alcohol content as the legal standard for drunk driving, and tightening airport and airline safety and security. As the ranking Democratic member of the Budget Committee, Senator Lautenberg also co-authored the Balanced Budget Agreement of 1997. He also has served as Chair of the United Jewish Appeal and as a Congressional Member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.

Dr. Ruth B. Mandel, of Princeton, New Jersey, is Director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics and is the Board of Governors Professor of Politics at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. From 1971 through 1994, she served as Director of Eagleton's Center for the American Woman and Politics (CAWP), where she remains affiliated as a Senior Scholar. Dr. Mandel has served on the board of the National Council for Research on Women; the National Commission for the Renewal of American Democracy; Princeton University's Center for Jewish Life; the Mercer County Commission on the Status of Women, and various editorial boards for scholarly journals and academic publishers. She was appointed Vice Chair of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council by President Clinton in May 1993.

Mr. Harvey M. Meyerhoff, of Baltimore, Maryland, is Chairman of the Board of Magna Holdings, Inc. and Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council. He also serves as a director of a number of organizations including PEC Israel Economic Corporation, Offitbank, The Concord Coalition and the National Housing Endowment. Mr. Meyerhoff is a Trustee of The John Hopkins University and the University of Wisconsin Board of Visitors, Center for Jewish Studies. Previously, he was a Director/Trustee of Monumental Corporation, St. John's College, Maryland National Bank and The John Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Mr. Set Charles Momjian, of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, is a retired international marketing executive with Ford Motor Company. He is Vice Chair of the Ellis Island Restoration Commission, a Founding Member of the President Carter Library and Study Center and a member of the boards of the Liberty Museum, Independence Hall Endowment Fund and the Woodrow Wilson House. Mr. Momjian also has served as the United States Representative to the United Nations (Human Rights) and as a member of the President's Commission on the Restoration of the White House Offices.

Mr. Nathan Shapell, of Beverly Hills, California, is Chairman and CEO of Shapell Industries, Inc., a diversified financial and real estate development firm. From 1987 to 1995 he was President of D.A.R.E. America, a nationally renowned drug abuse resistance educational program. He also has served on a number of State of California commissions on government reform and was a member and Subcommittee Chairman of President Reagan's Private Sector Survey on Cost Control. In 1994, Mr. Shapell represented Holocaust Survivors Worldwide at the candle lighting ceremony in the Vatican for the "Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust."

Professor Elie Wiesel, of New York, New York, is University Professor and the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University. A native of Sighet, Transylvania, Professor Wiesel survived Auschwitz, and after the war, became a journalist in Paris. Eventually, he began to write about the Holocaust experiences and is a distinguished author of more than 40 books. Among his best-known works are his memoirs Night (1960), All Rivers Run to the Sea (1995) and And the Sea is Never Full. (1999). He has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States Congressional Gold Medal, the rank of Grand Officer in the French Legion of Honor, and, in 1986, he received the Nobel Peace Prize. In 1978, President Carter appointed Professor Wiesel Chairman of the President's Commission, and, on the Holocaust and in 1980 he became the Founding Chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council.

Ms. Karen B. Winnick, of Los Angeles, California, is an author and illustrator of children's books including Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers and Sybil's Night Ride. She also produced a play, Kindertransport, about children who were sent to England in WWII. Her paintings have been exhibited in local galleries and her poems have been published in magazines and anthologies. She also is a member of the Board of Commissioners of the Los Angeles Zoo, the Board of Trustees at Brown University and the Board of Trustees of The Jewish Museum in New York. Ms. Winnick also is a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District Reading Task Force, and, through the Winnick Family Foundation, supports many education and literacy programs in Los Angeles and throughout the country.

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 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum was dedicated in 1993.

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