The publication is reproduced in full below:
REMEMBERING MIMI LEVIN LIEBER
______
HON. JERROLD NADLER
of new york
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of my good friend Mimi Levin Lieber, a beloved public servant and leader in early childhood education.
Mimi devoted her life to her mission of making literacy a right of all children, a passion that led her to launch Literacy Inc. (LINC), an organization in my district dedicated to providing children with a strong foundation of literacy early in life. Through her organization, Mimi was able to touch the lives of so many New Yorkers by taking an innovative community-based approach to learning that addressed the systemic inequalities in our education system.
Mimi believed that through reading, everything becomes possible. This conviction served her well while attending the University of Chicago for her Bachelor's and Master of Arts Degrees and, later, training in London to become a pioneer in qualitative research. After completing a fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School for Education, she met her husband for life, Charles Lieber. Charles was a well-traveled, multi-
lingual native of the Netherlands who fled the Nazi occupation of Belgium in 1940. Forty years later, he would go on to acquire the Hebrew Publishing Company, the oldest American publisher of Judaica.
After moving to New York in 1960, she and Charles raised four children on the Upper West Side. Mimi cherished being a mother and believed raising children was one of the most important, yet undervalued, roles in life. Mimi grew up in a cohesive Jewish community in Detroit, but she quickly became a true New Yorker who looked out for everyone in her community. She served on the synagogue board, Hebrew school board, the Jewish Board of Guardians, and Community Planning Board 7. While doing all this, Mimi, a trained sociologist, also founded Lieber Attitude Research which became one of the first firms to employ focus groups to help companies understand client thinking.
This public service and her sociology background led me to nominate her to the New York State Board of Regents, where she served New York students for 15 years. While on the board, she successfully lobbied politicians around the state to make critical investments necessary to tum young children in the five boroughs into learners for life. During her service, she became a breast cancer survivor and spoke openly about her illness when many would not. Mimi never viewed public service as a sacrifice; she believed in the power of community and viewed the ability to serve others as a privilege. One of her sons, Janno Lieber, continued her tradition of public service and currently serves as Acting Chair and CEO of New York's MTA. In her later years, she spent much of her time at her family's countryside retreat in Spencertown, New York and continued to serve on the board of LINC.
Her legacy reminds us that we must support and invest in our children's education from the earliest years, when it matters the most, and that universal literacy is critical to sustaining a healthy democracy. Mimi will truly be missed, and she has left her imprint on the thousands of readers she inspired through her advocacy. Mimi is survived by her children, grandchildren, and members of her LINC family. May her memory be a blessing.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 188
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