IRVING BERLIN CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL IMAGE FOUND

Following years of searching, Mel Wacks has finally obtained pictures of the Congressional Gold Medal presented by President Eisenhower to Irving Berlin on February 18, 1955. Wacks knew that Irving Berlin was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the bill P.L. 83-536, 68 Stat. A120, approved on July 16, 1954 and signed by President Dwight Eisenhower at the White House a few days later, witnessed by Irving Berlin and his wife. There are pictures of Eisenhower signing the bill and pictures of Eisenhower presenting the gold medal to Irving Berlin—but there were no pictures of the medal. Not even Google could unearth a picture.

So, Mel Wacks wrote to the Department of the Treasury, and requested a photo of Irving Berlin's Congressional Gold Medal under the Freedom of Information Act. In a letter from the Department of the Treasury, dated January 30, 2018, Lateau Jones, Acting Disclosure Officer/Freedom of Information Act Public Liaison enclosed photos of the medal and the galvanos (signed “G[ILROY] ROBERTS 1954). Since the pictures were black and white, Wacks had a friend, Manu Sagarbarria, color them gold.

Irving Berlin's Congressional Gold medal (in full color) is featured for the first time on the front cover of The Shekel, the quarterly magazine published by the American Israel Numismatic Association (which Mel edits) and in an article about Irving Berlin, composer of “God Bless America,” that celebrates the theme of Jewish American Heritage Month (May)—Jewish contributions to American music. The medal's picture will also be added to Irving Berlin's biography on the Jewish-American Hall of Fame's website www.amuseum.org/jahf.

A copy of this issue of The Shekel, The Journal of Israel and Jewish History and Numismatics, along with the three other issues published in 2018, can be obtained by sending $25 dues (in USA) to AINA, P.O. Box 20255, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269. Further information about AINA can be found at www.theshekel.org.

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