(JTA) — President Donald Trump reportedly is tapping Howard Lorber, a businessman and longtime friend, 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 served as an economic adviser on Trump’s presidential campaign, The Washington Post reported.
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.
The museum’s governing board has 68 members, including presidential appointees, who serve five-year terms, along with senators and representatives and members of the education, interior and state departments.
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.
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