SR0719 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0719 LRB100 13379 MST 27979 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Charles Lipshitz; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz was born in Lodz, Poland; in 1939, the Germans incarcerated the Jewish community in the ghetto, ending his formal education at five years; in 1942, his bar mitzvah year, he hid in an attic as the Germans deported most of the children and elderly from the ghetto; his father was sent to Auschwitz; in 1944, Charles, along with the rest of his family, was also sent there when the ghetto was liquidated; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz and his brother survived three concentration camps, a death march, starvation, and sickness, to be liberated on April 15, 1945; out of a family numbering more than 200 people, only his brother and a cousin survived; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz spent the next five years working in Hanover, Germany; he then moved to Chicago to join his brother; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz married Rene, also an Auschwitz survivor, in 1952; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz founded Lipshitz Sales and then R&L Specialty, an industrial linen supply service; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz became active in his community; he was honored in 1968 by Israel Bonds; he became a leader in the fight to prevent neo-Nazis from marching in Skokie in 1977; he chaired the committee to create a Holocaust Memorial in Skokie, which was dedicated in 1987 on the Skokie Village Green on land donated by the village and with funds donated by individuals, synagogues, and the Jewish United Fund; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz dedicated much of his life to preserving the memory of the Holocaust, its victims, its survivors, and its lesson; he founded Sheerit HaPleitah (Remnants of the Destruction), the umbrella organization of Chicago-area Holocaust survivors groups, which he ran for many years; in 2008, his family commissioned a Torah and dedicated it at a local synagogue in memory of his and his wife's parents, who perished in the Holocaust; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz was predeceased by his wife, Rene; and

WHEREAS, Charles Lipshitz is survived by his children, Debbie Katz and Leon Lipshitz; many grandchildren; and many great-grandchildren; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Charles Lipshitz, and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Charles Lipshitz as an expression of our deepest sympathy.