leaders. the ceremony is 35 minutes. announcer: ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the useum vice chair, alan holt. >> good evening, everyone. it's an honor to be here, and i want to express my thanks to all of you for being here. i want to especially thank this evening's chairs, beth hifitz and jody and wrod mackland. [applause] and the washington community. my home community for this fantastic show of support for the museum and its campaign. i am the son of holocaust survivors. and i am also blessed. i just celebrated with my parents their 70th wedding anniversary. [applause] i grew up in the 1950's and the 1960's. two events that i most remember from my early life were the legacy of the holocaust and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. in fact, one of the unforgettable moments of my new jersey childhood was witnessing first hand the horrible race so tonight ark in these two strands of my life come together as we honor congressman john lewis. a very special american. [applause] a very special human being. as my parents would say, a true mench. my parents have been in this country less than 20 years when the civil rights movement began. they were probably unaware that the nazis often justified their anti-semitism as not much different from american racism. nor did they realize that american soldiers who liberated europe and liberated them were part of a segregated u.s. army. but for many in the 1960's, the holocaust taught us the urgency of speaking out. so it was not surprising that several of the jews most active in the civil rights movement had links to the holocaust. one such activist rabbi yorkim prince of berlin fled to the united states in 1937. he would go on to become one of the planners of the 1963 march on washington and spoke immediately beforeen luther king gave his "i have a dream" speech. in his remarks that day rabbi prince said when i was a rabbi of the jewish community of berlin under the hitler regime, i learned many things. most important was that bigotry and hatred are not the most urgent problem. the most urgent, the most shameful, and the most tragic problem is silence. later, rabbi prince would recall the march on washington as the greatest religious experience of his life. but what made that march possible? what animated the civil rights movement that so powerfully challenged our country to live up to its ideals and reshape our nation? it was the singular leadership of a very few great, very dedicated men. hero is widely overused, but tonight we honor a true hero. the son of sharecroppers, as john lewis pursued his education, he studied religion as well as the philosophy and techniques of nonviolence. with his fellow students, he participated in lunch counter sit-ins, freedom rides and demonstrations. y the age of 23, remember, that's 23, he was recognized as one of the big six leaders of the civil rights movement. he endured endless harassment and humiliation and repeated beatings culminating on bloody sunday when a skull was broken as the marchers stopped to pray. imagine knowing that your peaceful demonstrations would lead to brutal attacks by angry mobs and yet demonstrating over and over again. let's take a look at this remarkable man. ♪ >> when you see something that's not right, not fair, not just, we have a moral obligation to do something. >> in 1961, college senior john lewis wrote the letter which would catapult him to the center of the civil rights movement. he volunteered to join the freedom rides challenging segregation across the deep south. >> i know that an education is important. and i hope to get one. but at this time, human dick knit is the most important -- human dignity is the most important thing in my life. that freedom might come to the deep south. boarding that greyhound bus to travel through the heart of the deep south, i felt good. i felt happy. i felt liberated. i was like a soldier in a nonviolent army. i was ready. we arrived in a little town in south carolina and tried to enter a so-called white waiting room. we were beaten. by members of the klan. >> the first freedom riders met violent resistance. the second wave of riders knew they were stepping into a firestorm. >> i was hit in the head with a wooden crate and left lying there in a pool of blood. >> the horror of what was occurring, the unbelieveability of what was occurring. these were americans who were doing this to other americans. >> beaten. arrested. jailed. i never had any sense of hate toward the people that beat me. i was inspired and never become bitter or hostile. and to be hopeful, to be optimistic, to never give up. >> at only 23, john lewis was the youngest organizer and speaker at the historic 1963 march on washington. >> we will march through the streets of jackson, through the streets of danville, through the streets of cambridge, through the streets of irmingham. [applause] we will march in the spirit of love and with a spirit of dignity that we have shown here today. >> on march 7, 1965, lewis helped lead a group of 600 orderly protesters across the edmund pettis bridge in selma, alabama. it would become known as bloody sunday. >> ♪ we shall overcome >> these images awakened the conscience of the nation. an entire generation would rally for justice and equal rights. on august 6, 1965, the voting rights act was signed into law. >> when i think of john lewis, i'm reminded that courage isn't just a one-time thing. his bravery in selma and during the civil rights movement is obviously what stands out. but that's part of a broader or deeper vein of courage that uns throughout his life. >> what each of us does matters is probably the single most important lesson out of the holocaust. you can see it and realize through john lewis. >> called the conscience of the congress, he has devoted himself to the advancement of human dignity and human rights. >> we all are human. and we all must be involved. and the problems and the issues that confront our fellow human being. we cannot afford to sit on the sideline. we cannot afford to be silent. [applause] >> another activist of the civil rights movement was rabbi abraham "joshua" eshel who fled the nazis and lost much of his family in the holocaust. he became a prominent leader of the civil rights movement marching on the front lines with martin luther king, with whom he shared a deep devotion to religious faith. eshel once wrote it was easier for the children of israel to cross the red sea than for a negro to cross certain university campuses. and he boldly challenged the jewish community to do more, saying we must act. human interest, human self-interest is often our nemesis. it is the audacity of faith that redeems us. it is with great pleasure that i get to invite up to the podium rabbi eshel's daughter, susana, who chairs the jewish studies program at dartmouth college and serves on the museum's community on ethics, religion and holocaust to deliver a tribute to her father's great friend, john lewis. ♪ >> we are gathered together this evening during the national days of holocaust remembrance. and we want to pay tribute to you, congressman john lewis. we honor you with an award in the name of our extraordinary friend and witness elie wiesel. we honor you during these days that commemorate the horrors of the holocaust. but also our survival and regeneration as a jewish people. and we present this award to you in tribute to your courage, your moral leadership, for your work in congress, for your evotion to the ongoing struggle for justice in this country. you represent one of the central lessons of the united states holocaust memorial museum. never to forget, never to be indifferent to other people's suffering. we honor you, congressman lewis . and we also thank you. and the other leaders of the civil rights movement for the inspiration you brought to america and for the gift that movement brought to american jews. you and your fellow civil rights leaders inspired so many jews, young and old, to take part with you in sit-ins, as freedom riders, and the mississippi freedom summer, and the march in washington, in selma, cicero, memphis, and the poor people march. you welcomed our participation in the movement and many young jews rediscovered with pride the jewish prophetic tradition. the civil rights movement arose just a few years after the end of the war. and we jews were just barely starting to recover from the horrors of hitler. my father, rabbi abraham joshua heschel, came to this country as a refugee from nazi europe. his mother and three of his sisters and his extended family were all murdered. my father had been a student in rlin in the 1930's when some german protestant thee loneliens were proclaiming the old testament was jewish book that should be thrown out of the christian bible. and that jesus was not a jew but an arian. caught up in their racist frenzy, they did not even recognize their own defamation of christianity. imagine then what my father felt when he came to this country and med reinhold nebor, martin luther king, christian theologians who revered the god of abraham. moses, the exodus from egypt, amos and isaiah, the hebrew bible was at the heart of the civil rights movement. and that was the bomb of gilead that helped -- balm of gilead that helped restore our wounded souls after the war. our hebrew prophets, what were their concerns? not praise for kings, flattery of the powerful, no. they taught that god's greatest concern is with widows and or fans. with honesty in the marketplace, with the impoverished and the neglected of society. the one verse that appears more often in the bible than any other is god's command "remember, you were slaves in egypt. do not mistreat the stranger in your midst. love your neighbor as yourself." racism is satanism, my father proclaimed. acism is idol tri, unmitigated evil. our yiddish newspapers in america at the turn of the century had headlines screaming with horror over the lynching of thousands of african-americans in this country. how can there be pogroms in the united states, they asked? this is the land of freedom. how can there be racism in america, the land of liberty? it is unthinkable. when president shyamen peres met president nelson mandela they declared that our histories as blacks and jews are bound up together. let us know one another's histories. .nd be each otheraries allies we draw inspiration from you, congressman lewis, for speaking out forcefully on behalf of jewish concerns and we thank you. during the selma campaign that you organized, dr. king lived for many months at the home of dr. and mrs. sullivan jackson and their daughter, juwana. and on the morning of that third march, mrs. jackson told me she woke up in the morning and went into her living room and there was dr. king standing in one corner saying his morning prayers, and in another corner of the living room is my father with his and then in the dining room there was a catholic praying. that glorious moment is also what the civil rights movement accomplished. prayer. us together in congressman lewis, you write in your memoir "walking with the wind" that there is an old affymetrix can proverb, when -- an old african-american proverb, when you pray, move your feet. and indeed my father embodied that african proverb when he returned from selma, he said, i felt my legs were praying. from the days of jim crow until today, this day that michelle alexander has rightly called the era of the new jim crow, an era of mass incarceration that is destroying the families of far too many african americans, you, congressman lewis, have maintained your resilience with your hard work in congress to transform the dream of justice into the reality of a better america. you write in your memoir, "we ay because we believe that praying can make what we believe, our dreams and our visions, come true." we know that redemption will not come to one group of people alone. but only to all of us at once. and we must work together for each other's hopes and dreams and keep alive the extraordinary alliance we forged as jews and blacks in the 1960's. let that day be this day. et us share insights and learning. let us give one another courage to persist despite the terrible predicaments we face. let us speak prophetically to one another. let us speak with the moral grandeur and spiritual audacity to believe that the promise of god endures forever. amen. [applause] >> thank you, susana. what a wonderful tribute to congressman lewis. it is one thing to speak about congressman lewis' impact on the past. but most importantly his legacy continues to shape the future. and that future depends on young people. so now it is my pleasure to introduce evan johnson, a graduate of the museum's youth leadership program. today, evan is executive director of the mid peninsula boys and girls club in san francisco. evan? [applause] >> good evening. i have the honor tonight of representing over 750 museum ambassadors across the country. we're from every race, religion and culture. yet bound to the lessons of the holocaust teaches and the man we honor tonight exemplifies. the power to make a difference. i was lucky enough to be the last generation of students in d.c. public schools whose teachers were african-american women, who had grown up in segregation. civil rights leaders like john lewis were their heroes and became ours as well. by high school, i had personally experienced racism. after that, what inspired me most about the civil rights movement was their nonviolence. so far, this part of my story is expected. what's totally unexpected was how the holocaust impacted my life. i was 17 when i first walked into the museum. and it felt like i was walking into a holy place. but it was the survivors who transformed how i viewed the world. they had experienced such horror and had every right to be bitter, but they weren't. i was overwhelmed by their spirit, their courage, their determination no matter how painful, to share their stories again and again in the hope that sharing could make the future different from their past. education is more than what happens in school. this program allowed us to learn not only about holocaust history but to learn about ourselves, who we were as people and who we could become, that we could become people like john lewis. i brought these lessons to the 2,000 underprivileged children we serve every year at the med -- -- mid peninsula boys and girls club. they need inspiration and the tools and resilience to the fa challenges they face every day. what is a holocaust survivor or a john lewis if not resilient? if not a model for the type of responsible, caring, productive citizens that we are trying to create? but what my heroes here tonight teach is a part of citizenship we tend to forget. it's not just about your rights. it's about your responsibility. for that, i am forever grateful. congressman lewis, will you please join us? ♪ ♪ [applause] this elie man lewis, wiesel medal is inscribed with words from his nobel acceptance speech which could have been written precisely with you in mind. and i quote, "one man of neck rit can make a difference." the inscription on your medal reads "to representative john lewis, for your extraordinary moral and physical courage and enduring commitment to promoting human dignity." common lewis. [applause] rep. lewis: good evening. i want to thank you board of trustees and the united states holocaust memorial council for this award as well as the useum director sara lumasil. it is a great honor to be medal, this precious name for a man that i have admired and loved for many years. someone that i've met on more than one occasion. i will cherish that for years to come, elie wiesel. as i said earlier on the film, when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to speak up, to speak out, and find a way to get in the way. when i was growing up in rural alabama, 50 miles from montgomery outside of a little place called troy, i would see those signs that said "white n," "colored men," white waiting, colored waiting, i would come home and ask my mother, my father, my grandparents, my great grandparents why? they would say that's the way it is. don't get in the way. don't get in trouble. but i read the bible. i read the story about the children of israel. egypt land own in pharaoh let w -- my people go. the music inspired me. the words inspired me. and then in 1955, 15 years old, in the 10th grade, i heard of rosa parks. i heard of martin luther king jr. i met rosa parks in 1957 at the age of 17. the next year, at the age of 18. i met martin luther king jr. and i never looked back. i i asked my mother and father, they said that's the way it is, don't get in trouble. but i got in trouble. it was good trouble, it was a necessary trouble. so we all must continue to get in trouble. i visited the holocaust museum ol more than one occasion. d for me it is hard, it is unbelievable and it is unreal what happened to a group of people, a group of human beings and it must never ever happen again, never, never again. [applause] mr. lewis: in the civil rights movement, i met the rabbi. yes, i met and walked with the rabbi. the hundreds and thousands of young jewish students and adults who marched on washington, many rabbis came to selma. many young people worked in the state of mississippi during 1964 and 1965 and others worked all across the south. and i would never ever forget three young men that i got to , went on a sunday night, celebrate the burning of an african-american church to be used for voting. these three young men driving in car, detained by the sheriff, arrested, taken to jail and later that evening, they were taken from jail and turned over to the klan where they were beaten, shot and killed. and their bodies were discovered x weeks later buried under a mine. it was a hard and difficult time for the civil rights movement. in the south, in our country, in temples and synagogues were bombed in the south. churches burned. we didn't give up. we didn't give in. we kept the faith and we kept our eyes on the prize and there are forces in america today, forces of hate, and we must never hate, where hate is too eavy a burden to bear. as was said as we were planning the march on washington august 28, 1963, said it over and over again, maybe our foremothers and forefathers came to this great land in different ships, but we are all in the same boat now and we must look out for each other and care for each other. and during this season, this political season, we must not let anything or anybody or any force to turn us around for we are one people, one family and we live in the same house, not just the american house, but the world house. thank you tonight for this great honor. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, congressman lewis, for those very stiring remarks. this is a very proud night for the holocaust museum. you inspire us all and you remind us that what we do matters. thank you all for coming. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by ational captioning institute] >> i helped both countries with their constitutions, being sort of

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