Posted January 3 2008 by Marc Lerman
Holocaust survivor to retire from Congress
Rep. Tom Lantos, a 79 year old 14 term Congressman from the San Fransisco area in California, announced that he has been diagnosed with cancer and is going to step down when his term expires next January. Lantos came to the United States from Hungary in 1947, penniless and having escaped from Nazi death camps not once but twice. Lantos became an American citizen and the only Holocaust survivor to make it to Congress. Lantos has quite the large family as well; according to Haaretz, he married his childhood sweetheart, has two daughters, 17 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Lantos, to me, is an example of how successful someone can be in America. Only here can someone arrive as a poor immigrant, which happens every single day, and become a well respected and successful individual in their own right. There are countless stories about immigrants making it big in America after having come over with nothing, but most of those stories took place over 100 years ago. Rarely do we see a modern-day story with such clear miracles all around. Rep. Lantos is quite simply a living miracle, and while I never followed his career as a Congressman, I respect him and wish him all the best.
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2 Comments currently posted. 
Dave Weinberg says:
Rep Tom Lantos Dies at age 80 | News says:
[...] To read more on Tom Lantos click here [...]
Best of luck, Congressman. Thanks for being a positive Jewish influence on the United States.