- Rudy Boschwitz
Infobox Senator | name=Rudolph Ely Boschwitz
jr/sr=United States Senator
state=Minnesota
party=Republican
term_start=December 30 ,1978
term_end=January 3 ,1991
preceded=Wendell Anderson
succeeded=Paul Wellstone
date of birth= birth date and age|1930|11|7
place of birth=Berlin, Germany
dead=alive
date of death=
place of death=
law school=New York University , 1953
spouse=Ellen Boschwitz
religion=Judaism Rudolph Ely "Rudy" Boschwitz is a former Independent-Republican
United States Senator fromMinnesota . He served in the Senate from December 1978 to January 1991, in the 96th, 97th, 98th, 99th, 100th, and 101st congresses. He was then defeated byPaul Wellstone .Boschwitz was born in
Berlin, Germany ,November 7 ,1930 . In 1933, when he was only three years old, his Jewish family fled Nazi Germany. They settled inNew Rochelle, New York , where he grew up. A graduate ofThe Pennington School , he attendedJohns Hopkins University ,Baltimore, Maryland , graduated from theNew York University Stern School of Business in 1950, and theNew York University School of Law in 1953.He was admitted to the
New York State bar in 1954 and theWisconsin bar in 1959. He served in theUnited States Army Signal Corps 1954–1955. He was the founder and chairman of aplywood and Home Improvement retailer,Plywood Minnesota , which later became [http://homevalu.com/ Home Valu Interiors] .Boschwitz was elected as an Independent-Republican to the United States Senate in November 1978 and was subsequently appointed on
December 30 ,1978 , to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation ofWendell Anderson . Boschwitz is well-known in Minnesota for operating a "Flavored Milk" booth at theMinnesota State Fair .After his defeat in 1990 by Wellstone, Boschwitz ran against Wellstone again in 1996 but failed to regain his seat.
In 1991 he traveled to
Ethiopia as the emissary of PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush . The negotiations led by Boschwitz while in Ethopia resulted inOperation Solomon . That is, the Ethiopian Government released 14,325 Jewish people to the Israeli government, and into freedom, by a massive airlift. Operation Solomon took twice as many Beta Israel émigrés to Israel asOperation Moses andOperation Joshua combined. Fact|date=February 2007He was a top "Bush Pioneer" in 2000, fund-raising $388,193, and a "Bush Ranger" in 2004, raising a minimum of $200,000 for
George W. Bush 's campaign fund in that election cycle. [ [http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=219 TPJ.org ] ]In 2005, President George W. Bush named Boschwitz as the Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The Commission meets at the U.N. in
Geneva, Switzerland .He presently serves on the Board of Directors of the
Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs , is an AIPAC Board Member, and is a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations .Electoral history
*1978 Race for U.S. Senate
**Rudy Boschwitz (R), 57%
**Wendell Anderson (DFL) (inc.), 40%*1984 Race for U.S. Senate
**Rudy Boschwitz (R) (inc.), 58%
**Joan Anderson Growe (DFL), 41%*1990 Race for U.S. Senate
**Paul Wellstone (DFL), 50%
**Rudy Boschwitz (R) (inc.), 48%*1996 Race for U.S. Senate
**Paul Wellstone (DFL) (inc.), 50%
**Rudy Boschwitz (R), 41%
**Dean Barkley (Ref.), 7%References
External links
* [http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00013.html Rudy Boschwitz: An Inventory of His Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society]
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