Report: Trump Picks Businessman Howard Lorber For Holocaust Memorial Council
Donald Trump speaking at a rally during his presidential campaign. Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — President Trump reportedly is tapping businessman and longtime friend Howard Lorber to serve as chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council’s governing board.
Lorber — the president and CEO of the Vector Group, a New York holding company, and chairman of the real estate giant Douglas Elliman — arranged for Trump to serve as grand marshal of New York’s Salute to Israel Parade in 2004, according to Politico. The 68-year-old Jewish businessman later served as an economic adviser on Trump’s presidential campaign.
Congress established the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 1980 to commemorate the Holocaust and raise money for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday, Trump will deliver public remarks as part of the museum’s annual Days of Remembrance ceremony — a day after Holocaust Memorial Day is observed in Israel — in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
Every president since the museum opened in 1993 has participated in Days of Remembrance events, which were first held in 1979 and later established by Congress as the nation’s commemoration of the Holocaust. They will be observed this year April 23-29.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
