Florida Senate - 2010                            (NP)    SR 2864
       
       
       
       By Senator Justice
       
       
       
       
       16-05486B-10                                          20102864__
    1                          Senate Resolution                        
    2         A resolution honoring the memory of Edith “Edie”
    3         Lowengard Loebenberg, co-founder of the Florida
    4         Holocaust Museum and Holocaust survivor.
    5  
    6         WHEREAS, Edith “Edie” Lowengard was born on March 1, 1926,
    7  into an Orthodox Jewish home in Darmstadt, Germany, the first
    8  town in that country to order shops owned by Jews to close, and
    9         WHEREAS, due to rising anti-Semitism, Edie Lowengard’s
   10  family left Germany for New York City in 1938 and subsequently
   11  moved to Chicago, Illinois, where Edie and her sister, Marion,
   12  attended public school and learned to speak English, and
   13         WHEREAS, on June 20, 1948, Edie Lowengard married a
   14  decorated World War II veteran, Walter Loebenberg, himself a
   15  refugee from the Nazis, and
   16         WHEREAS, Walter and Edie Loebenberg eventually settled in
   17  St. Petersburg, where they raised three children and, later,
   18  enjoyed their eight grandchildren and one great-grandson, and
   19         WHEREAS, Edie Loebenberg worked with great passion to
   20  improve the conditions of every community in which she lived
   21  and, in 1992, was part of a group of business and community
   22  leaders who realized their vision for a living memorial
   23  dedicated to those who suffered and perished during the
   24  Holocaust, and
   25         WHEREAS, in 1998, the Holocaust Center relocated to St.
   26  Petersburg from its original home in Madeira Beach and
   27  officially changed its name to the Florida Holocaust Museum, and
   28         WHEREAS, the Florida Holocaust Museum has become one of the
   29  foremost institutions of its kind in this nation and, due to its
   30  efforts, Florida became the first state in the nation to mandate
   31  Holocaust education in the public schools from kindergarten
   32  through twelfth grade, and
   33         WHEREAS, in 2003, the Loebenberg Humanitarian Award was
   34  established and named for Edie and Walter Loebenberg to honor
   35  their vision in establishing the Florida Holocaust Museum and,
   36  each year, recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding
   37  contribution to the museum to allow it to continue to realize
   38  its mission of promoting the recognition of the inherent worth
   39  and dignity of human life in order to prevent future genocide,
   40  and
   41         WHEREAS, on April 19, 2010, Edie Loebenberg, a kind and
   42  gentle soul, left this world, NOW, THEREFORE,
   43  
   44  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:
   45  
   46         That this legislative body does pause in its deliberations
   47  to pay its respects to the memory of Edie Loebenberg and to
   48  celebrate her passion for and commitment to ensuring that the
   49  atrocities of the past will never be repeated in the future.