Jane Harman: “maybe because I, too, lost many family members in the Holocaust, I felt a special affinity for Tom Lantos. His story was…”

“maybe because I, too, lost many family members in the Holocaust, I felt a special affinity for Tom Lantos. His story was an integral part of him. I was moved every time he described himself as the only Holocaust survivor in Congress. And so were many others. Tom was eloquent, passionate, insightful, elegant--and fierce in his advocacy. His questions of witnesses before his committee could be withering. He had a point of view and was unblinking in his efforts to communicate it. In personal terms, Tom was a lovely human being--devoted to Annette, his daughters and that enormous crowd of grandchildren and great- grandchildren. But he was also devoted to his colleagues, this institution, to our country, and to achieving peace in the Middle East. At a time of such entrenched partisanship--which he deplored--we desperately need more, not fewer, Toms. Sadly, that is not likely to happen. I shall miss him terribly. Shalom, haver.”