Lillian Hoffman Papers

Collection

Identifier: B331

Staff Only

Abstract

Collection contains books and videos, related to Lillian Hoffman from 1960 through 2014. Lillian Hoffman was a founding and active member of the Colorado Committee of Concern for Soviet Jewry. She began public Jewish protests in Denver and was the first to speak to a Soviet Jewish prisoner.

Dates

2009-2012

Creator

Bialek, Sheila Hoffman (Person)

Conditions Governing Use

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Biographical / Historical

Lillian Butler Hoffman was born January 10, 1913 in Denver, Colorado to Louis and Anna Butler. She graduated from East High School at 16 and worked to help pay for her brothers to go to college after declining a schloarship to college for herself. She married her husband, Harry Hoffman, on June 30, 1935. Together they had three children, Nona, Sheila, and Howard. They also worked to grow his business, Harry Hoffman Liquors.

In 1970, Lillian Hoffman and Rhoda Friedman found the Colorado Committee of Concern of Soviet Jewry. Through this organization, they worked with volunteers to mail letters and telegrams, make telephone calls, and even visit the Soviet Union. All of this work was to get the release of Jewish familie who were refused immigration visas. She worked with congressmen to accomplish this work, too. On top of this work, Lillian was involved into numerous organizations. They include: Hadassah, Namat USA, National Council of Jewish Women, the B'nai B'rith Institute, BMH, Beth Josef, Rodef Shalom, and TRI-Sulom.

Her work for the Babi Yar Park in Denver helped to build a memorial park for the Jews slaughtered at the site of Babi Yar in 1939. Eli Weizel helped to dedicate the park in 1969.

In 1974, Lillian Hoffman went to Washington DC to lobby for the Jackson-Vannick Amendment, which linked trade in the Soviet Union with emigration of Soviet Jews to the United Sattes. That amendment went on to pass. She was chairperson of the Raul Wallenberg Committee and worked to find out if Raul Wallenberg was alive and being held prisoner in Russia. In November of 1995, she also presented a bust of Raoul Wallenberg to the United States government, and that bust is still in the Capitol Building today. She did this because Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, helped to save 100,000 Hungarian Jews during World War II. The trip to present the bust was her last and she dies on April 26, 1996.

(Intermountain Jewish News, Vol 83 No 18, April 27, 1996)