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Extensions of Remarks E1856 HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL

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Extensions of Remarks E1856 HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL E1856 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks October 12, 2001 percent of the previous year’s crop. While this Security Act accomplished this through making legislation to fully protect Grade’s works, H.R. was still good enough to enable Kansas to needed improvements in food assistance pro- 2971. lead the nation in wheat production, it resulted grams by giving states greater flexibility, doing I ask unanimous consent that the full text of in a production value decrease of nearly $30 away with unnecessary barriers to participa- the Rackman/Wagner essay be printed at this million from the previous year. Corn produc- tion, and increasing assistance to working point. tion was down by 4 million bushels from 1999, families, or those individuals known as the PHILO-SEMITISM IN THE WORK OF THE POLISH and sorghum grain production was down 27 ‘‘working poor.’’ Under this plan, individual NOBEL LAUREATE CZESLAW MILOSZ: HE percent, though I am pleased to report to my states will be able to provide six months of PAYS TRIBUTE TO JEWISH LITERATURE colleagues that Kansas did retain its position transitional food stamp benefits for families Numerous very interested reviews of as the number one sorghum grain production leaving the Temporary Assistance for Needy Czeslaw Milosz’s newly published book, state in the nation. Families program. It includes incentives for Milosz’s ABC’s inspired us to read it. The The difficulties facing the farmers and states to improve quality control systems and various, truly unexpected, unpredictable sub- ranchers of Kansas did not stop there. Soy- the Emergency Food Assistance Program will jects, alphabetically arranged as if encyclo- bean production was down nearly 40 percent receive an additional $40 million for com- pedia entries, may well require a volume of and was at its lowest level in five years. And comments. So we comment here on only one modity purchases. subject, conspicuously absent from this work hay production was down 13 percent from Under this year’s Farm Bill, our willingness both as a subject and in spirit—anti-Semi- 1999. Mr. Speaker, these facts strongly sug- to help others is not confined to our own bor- tism. gest the need for a farm policy which con- ders. This legislation provides increased funds Czeslaw Milosz, a Polish nobleman, gives tinues current successful agricultural programs to transport U.S. producers’ surplus commod- as much attention and loving devotion to his and offers a balanced approach for addressing ities to the world’s developing nations. It also Jewish friends and acquaintances, subjects issues of important to those Americans who increases the cap on funds used to provide and issues, as Polish ones. The absence of the produce crops and livestock. It is time for Con- food assistance on a grant basis or on credit least trace of anti-Semitism in Milosz’s book is to us, as American Jews, a revelation, for gress to step forward and demonstrate our terms to struggling countries. Additionally, it corroborates the views of the great Jewish commitment to the men and women who feed funding for the Foreign Market Development writer, the poet and novelist Chaim Grade, our Nation. Program is increased by $7 million per year originally, like Milosz, from Vilna, who said There are numerous reasons why I will vote over its current level. This program is an effec- that in Poland anti-Semitism was mainly for the Farm Security Act of 2001. I support tive approach to acquiring new foreign cus- among the masses—evidently under the in- this legislation because it offers essential in- tomers for American producers and new mar- fluence of the Church of pre-Vatican II— come support to farmers and ranchers, thus kets for American crops and livestock. Recent whereas the Polish aristocracy and intelli- guaranteeing a safe, affordable, and depend- Department of Agriculture figures indicate that gentsia, with rare exceptions, were over- able food supply for the United States and whelmingly philo-Semitic. Indeed, Chaim in 1980, the United States held a 24 percent Grade wrote a poem of homage to the great- many parts of the world. The American people share of world agricultural markets. Now, that est poet of Poland, Adam Mickiewicz, fa- are truly a blessed and fortunate people con- figure has dropped to nearly 18 percent. I be- mous as a philo-Semite, calling him ‘‘the sidering that we spend only 11 cents of every lieve this bill improves the ability of our pro- conscience of Poland.’’ dollar we earn on food. In other nations that ducers to compete. Chaim Grade is a master of utmost objec- figure may be as high as fifty cents on the dol- The Farm Security Act of 2001 is a fair and tivity, well aware of the horrors of anti-Sem- lar. balanced bill which enjoys the support of agri- itism, for which reason in his Lamentations It is not just the worker on the farm or ranch culture and conservation groups. It addresses about the program in Kielce, July 1946—not yet translated—he describes the Polish doc- who will feel the benefits of this Farm Bill. This critical farm program needs and also makes legislation provides much-needed resources to tor who at the funeral of the victims de- significant improvements to America’s con- nounces the murderous mob with the fiery the agricultural economy, which will guarantee servation, rural development, export pro- pathos of a Hebrew prophet. It is the very the continued viability of the food and fiber motion, nutrition and research programs. It same doctor, a devout Catholic, who rescued sector where nearly one-fifth of America’s civil- fully complies with the budget approved by more than twenty Jews from the Nazis, hid- ian workforce is employed. Mr. Speaker, by Congress earlier this year and meets our ing them in his house, again as described by supporting production on our farms and WTO obligations. I commend the Chairman Chaim Grade in his acclaimed philosophical ranches, we are ensuring that domestic agri- and the Committee for their work on this Farm Dialogue, My War With Hersh Rassayner, the culture remains robust and the job market in complete text of which, edited and revised by Bill and I strongly encourage my colleagues to Chaim Grade himself, has just been trans- America’s food and fiber industry is strong. vote for it. I heard from many of my constituents back lated into English. Scholar agree—and f among them Professor Emeritus Millon R. in Kansas regarding the need for additional Konvitz of Cornell University—that the Phil- conservation in this year’s Farm Bill. I am ESSAY BY RABBI EMANUEL osophical Dialogue of Chaim Grade is indeed pleased to tell them that we have considerably RACKMAN AND STEPHEN WAGNER the Book of Job on the Holocaust and that, increased funding for conservation programs. like the Book of Job, it belongs ‘‘among Jew- This legislation contains an average of $1.285 HON. ELIOT L. ENGEL ish writings that are considered sacred . which in the Hebrew Scriptures are wisely billion per year for Environmental Quality In- OF NEW YORK placed in the part known simply as centives Programs, plus an additional fund of IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES $60 million per year to address water issues. writings.’’ Chaim Grade attended the funeral Thursday, October 11, 2001 of the victims of the pogrom of Kielce with The bill added 5.7 million acres to the Con- Antek Yitzhak Zuckerman, one of the fore- servation Reserve Program, which is 2.8 mil- Mr. ENGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call atten- most leaders of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, lion acres above the currently authorized acre- tion to a powerful essay by Rabbi Emanuel who said that ‘‘while it took one Pole to be- age. It adds 1.5 million new acres to the Wet- Rackman of Bar Ilan University and Stephen tray one hundred Jews, it took one hundred lands Reserve Program. It authorizes $25 mil- Wagner of Bar Ilan University entitled, ‘‘Philo- Poles to save one Jew, and the Poles who lion for the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Pro- Semitism in the Work of the Polish Nobel Lau- were saving Jews are the glory of mankind.’’ gram, an amount that increase to $50 million reate Czeslaw Milosz: He Pays Tribute to Chaim Grade’s works reflect this truth. by the year 2011. Finally, our conservation ef- Jewish Literature.’’ According to the article, No doubt, it is Chaim Grade’s absolute ob- jectivity and utmost spiritual and intellec- forts are augmented by the implementation of while there has been anti-Semitism among the tual honesty that inspired Czeslaw Milosz, the Grasslands Reserve Program which allows Polish masses, the Polish aristocracy and the spiritual and literary heir of Mickiewicz, up to 2 million acres to be preserved as grass- intelligencia ‘‘were overwhelmingly philo-Se- to devote to him a chapter of homage in lands. Mr. Speaker, through the Farm Security mitic.’’ According to the essay, Milosz’s opin- Milosz’s ABC’s, where among other impor- Act, our commitment to conservation is strong- ion ‘‘corroborates the views of the great Jew- tant comments, he reports what a Jewish au- er than ever. ish writer, the poet and novelist Chaim Grade, thority should have reported a long time This legislation also reflects America’s com- originally, like Milosz, from Vilna . .’’ ago: The Nobel Prize for Isaac Bashevis Sing- mitment to the less fortunate in our society For several years, I have been striving to er was cause for violent controversies among Yiddish-speaking New York Jews . Above who need a helping hand.
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