Tom Lantos, 1928-2008
A native of Hungary, Lantos was the only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress, representing California as a Democrat in the House from 1981 to 2008. Steven Spielberg’s documentary “The Last Days” featured Lantos’ life…
Naomi Lauter, 1930-2017
Recruited by Si Kenen, Lauter worked with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in San Francisco for more than 50 years, from chief volunteer recruiter to regional director to a consultant training staff across the…
Emma Lazarus, 1849-1887
Jewish poet Lazarus’ words, taken from “The New Colossus,” are on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” She wrote some of…
Yehudah Leib Levin, 1844-1925
A Belarus native, Levin was a Jewish Enlightenment poet who wrote in Hebrew on socialist themes. Concerned with Jewish lives in Russia, Levin wrote one of his most famous poems, “Daniyel be-gov ha-arayot” (“Daniel in…
Bernard Lewis, 1916-2018
Orientalist scholar Lewis, a London native who finished his academic career at Princeton, influenced American foreign policy and the West’s attitudes toward the Middle East. He backed U.S. intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan. His “Lewis…
Samuel Lewis, 1930-2014
Lewis served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, second in tenure to Walworth Barbour. He played an important part in brokering Israeli-Egyptian peace and provided the on-site U.S. response to the…
Moshe Leib Lilienblum, 1843-1910
A scholar and author born in Lithuania, Lilienblum embraced the Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement in Russia after the pogroms of 1881 and served as secretary of an Odesa committee on Palestine settlement. His…
