Jewish Members of Congress: Gary Ackerman (Representative, New York)

Representative Gary Ackerman is currently serving his thirteenth term representing the 5th district of New York and is a leader in health care and foreign affairs. He passed the "Baby AIDS" bill, which required mandatory HIV testing of newborn, disclosure of the status to the mother and forbade insurance companies from terminating health insurance of those who have taken an HIV/AIDS test. Ackerman also pushed to require that Medicare cover testing for prostate cancer. Ackerman has been a leader on issues relating to the Jewish community. He has authored legislation that required President Bush to sanction the Palestinian Authority for not complying with peace agreements it signed with the U.S. and Israel. He convinced the German government to establish a $110 million fund to compensate 18,000 Holocaust survivors and to investigate whether 3300 former Nazi soldiers now living in the US and collecting German pensions are war criminals. Ackerman serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Financial Services Committee. He currently resides in Queens with his wife, Rita. They have three children and two grandchildren.

For more information on Representative Ackerman, please visit http://www.house.gov/ackerman/.