Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2026

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 8282 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8282 To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES April 14, 2026 Ms. Velazquez introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To posthumously award a Congressional Gold Medal to Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl in recognition of his acts of valor during World War II. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2026''. SEC. 2. FINDINGS. Congress finds the following: (1) Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl was born in Hungary on October 25, 1903, later moving to Slovakia to study under Rabbi Shumel Dvoid Ungar in Nitra. (2) During his time in Nitra, he quickly became a senior figure within the local Jewish community and Yeshiva. (3) Weissmandl was responsible for some of the daring efforts to save the Jewish people of Slovakia from the Holocaust, which include the establishment of a ``Working Group'', an underground organization that raised funds to negotiate ransom with German and Slovakian officials in order to delay mass deportations. (4) During the Nazi regime, Weissmandl used his contacts from England to obtain visas, becoming one of the first to actively protect people of Jewish ancestry in Europe. (5) Weissmandl also wrote telegrams to generate awareness of the Jewish people's plight and encouraged other strategic approaches to stop the Holocaust, including the bombing of railroad tunnels to prevent the transportation of pers