Tom Lantos In Jerusalem, Israel In 1988 Editorial Image

US Congressman Tom Lantos attends a Conference of Jewish Parliamentarians in Jerusalem, Israel, on January 5, 1988. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Lantos is the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the United States Congress. He was one of the thousands of Hungarians saved through the efforts of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. Lantos served a district in and adjacent to San Francisco, California, werving from 1981 until 2008. . He was a one-time academic, earning his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Washington, and his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in the same field. He was a liberal Democrat and a fierce advocate of human rights. Lantos died in Bethesda, Maryland from esophageal cancer at the age of 80 on February 11, 2008. Some months after his death, Lantos was posthumously awarded the Medal ofFreedom by President George W. Bush.