Rep Steny Hoyer remarks on Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt Washington Board of Rabbis Potomac MD May 25, 1988

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Mr. Speaker, it is a pleasure to introduce to you, Rabbi

Stuart Weinblatt, of Temple Solel in Bowie, MD. A native of Baltimore, he graduated with high honors from the University of Maryland with a degree in history. I came to know Stu Weinblatt during his student days when he served for 3 years as director of State affairs for the University of Maryland student government. In that capacity, he was liaison to the State legislature, where I served as a member of the senate. Stu Weinblatt is no stranger to political activism or to Capitol Hill. In his high school days, he was named a William Randolph Hearst U.S. Senate scholar, entitling him to study for a week here in Washington. As a college student, he sponsored a registration drive which added 9,000 new voters to the rolls. He also served as an intern both to Baltimore Congressman Sam Friedel on the House Administration Committee and to Congressman Clarence Long. Following his graduation from the University of Maryland, Stu Weinblatt attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and studied for 1 year in Israel. Before coming to Bowie's Temple Solel, he served 2 years at Miami's Temple Betham. Since coming to Temple Solel in 1981, Rabbi Weinblatt has taken an increasingly active role in a wide variety of community affairs. Most notably, he now serves as the president of the Washington Board of Rabbis. Rabbi Weinblatt has participated in a number of demonstrations in the vicinity of the Soviet Embassy here in Washington on behalf of Soviet Jews. Earlier this year, he traveled to the Soviet Union where he met with Yuli Kosharovsky, who has been a refusenik for 17 years, longer than virtually anyone else still in the Soviet Union. Following his return from the Soviet Union, Rabbi Weinblatt has continued his work on behalf of Soviet Jews. These efforts include a protest he organized in March at the Soviet Embassy in behalf of Yuli Kosharovsky. While meeting with a large group of refuseniks in Moscow, Rabbi Weinblatt also met with several of our colleagues, including Tom Lantos. Following the rabbi's moving comments at the end of that meeting, Congressman and Mrs. Lantos suggested that…. Rabbi Weinblatt should one day give the invocation here in the House.