Sen. Philip A. Hart (D., Mich.) who died yesterday at his Washington home, a victim of cancer, was a longtime supporter of Zionism and the State of Israel. He served as chairman of the Michigan chapter of the American Christian Palestine Committee, the group that was formed in the 1990s to back Jewish efforts in Palestine.
In the Senate, to which he was first elected in 1958. Hart was a co-sponsor of all measures to provide American economic and military as assistance to Israel. He was known as “the conscience of the Senate” for his fights against bigotry and in support of consumer affairs. He played a large part in every civil rights, consumer and antitrust bill passed by Congress since the early 1960s. Hart, who was 64, did not seek re-election this year after 18 years in the Senate.
In 1955, when he was Lt. Governor of Michigan, Hart and the then Gov. G. Menen Williams were honored with the Williams-Hart Forest in Israel by the Jewish National Fund Council of Detroit. Williams and Hart visited Israel and attended a special ceremony at the forest in the hills of Menashe planted in their honor. Percy Kaplan, executive director of the JNF Council in Detroit, announced today that a garden of frees will be planted in Israel by the JNF in memory of Hart.
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