Hadassah Lieberman

Hadassah Lieberman (born Hadassah Freilich in the refugee camp of Prague, Czechoslovakia, in Mar. 28, 1948) is the wife of United States Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID - CT).

She is the daughter of Rabbi Samuel Freilich, a Holocaust survivor from Munkács, Carpathian Ruthenia (now Mukachevo, part of Ukraine and predecessor Ukrainian SSR since 1945, 1939-45 by Hungary of Axis powers), who died in 1993, and Ella Wieder Freilich, also a Holocaust survivor who died on August 6, 2004. She grew up in Gardner, Massachusetts, where her father was the rabbi at Congregation Ohave Shalom.

She obtained a BA in Government and Dramatics from Boston University in 1970, and an MA in International Relations from Northeastern University in 1971. She has worked as a Research Analyst at Lehman Brothers (1971-72), as Director of Policy, Planning, and Communications at Pfizer (1982-85), and as a Senior Program Officer at the National Research Council (1990-93).

Hadassah has also worked for the lobbying company, APCO Associates, that had many pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations among its clients, as well as for major drug companies such as Pfizer. In March 2005, Hadassah was hired by Hill & Knowlton as "senior counselor" in the firm's "health care and pharmaceuticals practice." Hadassah's close relationship with pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations while her husband introduced legislation benefiting these exact companies has raised questions about improprieties and conflict of interest. [http://salon.com/opinion/conason/2006/09/01/hadassah_lieberman/]

Mrs. Lieberman was actively involved in her husband's vice-presidential campaign in 2000, making campaign stops nationwide such as at Chicago's Taste of Polonia over Labor Day Weekend where she appeared along with Tipper Gore and Dick Cheney [http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:SDUwq0rr3iAJ:www.gwu.edu/~action/states/ildet.htm+hadassah+lieberman+Taste+of+Polonia&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&client=firefox-a schedule of the 2000 presidential campaign in Illinois] [ [http://www.copernicusfdn.org/home.php?dzial=9 Copernicus Foundation page on the festival] ] .

With her first husband, Rabbi Gordon Tucker, she has a son, Ethan, and with Senator Lieberman she has a daughter, Hana.

Hadassah Lieberman has also served as Chairman of the Ambassador's Ball for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and as Honorary Board Member for Society for Women's Health Research.

She co-wrote the book "An Amazing Adventure: Joe and Hadassah's Personal Notes on the 2000 Campaign" with Senator Lieberman.

References