"So we had six girls and we got married and then we had two boys. "The magical is a little bit of an exaggeration.". Personal details about Lee include: political affiliation is currently a registered Democrat; ethnicity is Caucasian; and religious views are listed as Christian. She appeared three times at the Summer Olympics (1972, 1976, 1980) and three times at the Commonwealth Games (1974, 1978, 1982). But a determined Margolies, then a reporter with WCAU-TV in Philadelphia, carved out her own path to success. My grandmother was a Sherlock Holmes of Yiddish song,, but she couldnt solve the mystery of antisemitism. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. A former friend of Margoliess poses the question in a different way. I love this!. When she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2013, he said, his wife began, at last, to open those jars. Holly, a half-Vietnamese, half-American child, was a street child. Last night I came back to the house after being away on a story, and my 18-year-old started to yell, 'Mommy's home', and the younger ones followed suit and then the 3-year-old started shouting, as they all ran down the stairs. She grew up with stability and normality and she woke up and said, 'I want more.' The other day, Facebook reminded me that this new generation of humans will never know the joys of having two keys for your car. The housekeeper and her son, 8, also live in, as will the baby she is expecting. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. Margolies was sitting in the audience and exchanged hellos with Clinton at the event. ", Candidate Mezvinsky, milking the Year of the Woman to the max, touts what she privately calls "my crazy family" as the essence of family values and rages at those "trying to preach to me about what a family is.". Her assignment as a CBS correspondent soon opened a door she never imagined. Strands of the personal and the political are so entwined as to be impossible to detangle in Marjorie Margolies life not that she ever would want to do that and theyre woven through her new book, And How Are the Children? She was born Ho Thi Thu Nga in Nha Trang, Vietnam, to a Vietnamese woman and an American serviceman. Some days it's her personal life that enhances her professional one: Not long ago, on a campaign visit to a 4-H Club fair in Creamery, Pa., Mezvinsky found herself in a goat-milking contest with a slew of male politicians. Chelsea Clinton. Margolies became the first unmarried U.S. citizen to adopt a foreign child. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, former United States Representative from Pennsylvania, political organization worker. Twenty-five years. She had been the first single woman in U.S. history to adopt a kid from a foreign country: Lee Heh, a South Korean girl, who eventually became one of 11 children Margolies would consider her. In 1973, an adoption agency sent her a photo of the 6-year-old she would name Holly, staring into the camera with a slight smile, holding a placard with her name . October 28, 1992 NARBERTH, PA. -- Marjorie Margolies Mezvinsky has a few things on her mind. Succeed2gether has an active board which meets every few months to discuss aims and progress for the year. Another housekeeper and a handyman help keep the hectic household running. Terrified by rumors that North Vietnamese soldiers would kill children like her daughter as they pushed into Saigon, her mother sent her to an orphanage. The first death occurred on Aug. 5, 1993, when Clinton was one vote short of passing a budget bill and convinced Margolies to change her mind. "Since 1998, we've been traveling around the world helping women, getting them to the table," she said. She had campaigned with her husband, Ed, a former Iowa congressman, countless times, but had never thought seriously of running for office -- although she came close during the Thomas hearings. Fox's campaign consultant, Eddie Mahe, said polls show his man leading by double digits -- Mezvinsky's campaign is not polling -- enough to survive even long coattails to Democrat Bill Clinton. ), In 1997, several years after their first Renaissance Weekend together, Chelsea Clinton decided to attend Stanford University, where Marc was already enrolled. Holly. When Margolies was elected to the House in 1992, she was in her early 50s, and her last name was Margolies-Mezvinsky. There had been only two votes in history that were that close and that important, she said. But when unmarried Marjorie Margolies picked up six-year-old Lee Heh 15 years ago in Korea, it simply wasn't done. The main reason for Babkas trip to Israel was to meet Danish. I pressed on. Margolies said her late daughter "was amazing" and left an incredible legacy, including two children. "Can you talk to me about how I was as a little girl?" There was anger there, still, and fear. She was 6. Still, its better to be safe than sorry. Through it all, Margolies never gave up her professional pursuits. First Lady Hillary Clinton chaired the American delegation, and Marjorie Margolies was named. She was 6years old. "I didnt know if and when I would marry. Apparently, it is all how you look at it. She writes about that bitter experience, too, in her book. At 50, she looks more like someone's daughter than someone's mother, which is odd, because she is the mother, stepmother and legal guardian of 11 children, ages 10 to 28 -- a family she began building at age 28 when she became the first single American woman to adopt a foreign child. "Middle-income people are getting screwed royally," Keane said. My husband gets a raise and we have to give it back in health care costs. Margolies, an Emmy-winning TV journalist, the first unmarried American woman to be permitted to adopt foreign children, and an author is now the founder and president of Women's Campaign International. There are days when she threatens to turn the Year of the Woman into the Year of the Jewish Mother, running an underdog campaign against a career pol that's as heavy on hugs and kisses as on political strategy. That happened many, many years later. Unlike Marc and Chelsea, reports Margoliess friend and former congressional staffer Arlene Halpernwho was therethey didnt spend the night. "Going on vacation when we were young, we would always want to sit next to Holly - we would fight over who got to share her room," her brother Vu Pham said, laughing. If that last fact isnt immediately obvious to everyone attending the fundraiser, it will quickly become so. She gave toasts that prompted acquaintances to ask whether she was a stand-up comedian. she asked. In fact, there probably are few families like Mezvinsky's. Philadelphia-based Mezvinsky works in international trade and is chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Her assignment as a CBS correspondent soon opened a door she never imagined. Currently, five of the children are in college, one attends a conservatory in France, and four others are in private schools. 'I ran into a lot of opposition. The reason thats funny is that one of her sons, Marc Mezvinsky, is married to Bill and Hillary Clintons only child, Chelsea Clinton. And she was very, very funny. ", "She's definitely not the '50s mom who does the laundry and who's baking cookies when we get home," said Lee Heh Margolies. And she was very, very funny. She had lost her bid for lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania in 1998 and was in the midst of a run for Rick Santorums Senate seat when her husband, Edward Mezvinksy, a former congressman who represented Iowa in the 1970s, declared bankruptcy. How many other female Democratic candidates who stood on the podium at the Democratic Convention were seized with this thought: "I thought about what Barbara Jordan had said the night before, invoking Thomas Jefferson and talking about women being in the halls and councils of power. Then, three years later in Vietnam, serendipity when Margolies ran into people from the same adoption agency. It was there that Marc and Chelsea met for the first time as teenagers. 'Everybody takes turns cooking,' says Margolies. Marjorie Margolies is at the World Conference on Women in Beijing in the fall of 1995. When he thought it would help, a federal prosecutor toldthe New York Times, he would call and say, Im spending the weekend with the Clintons., Perhaps with this in mind, Margolies suddenly turns press-shy when asked too many questions about her personal rapport with the Clintons. the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. In 1970, Margolies was a TV reporter when an assignment took her to Korea for a series on adoption. Marjorie Margolies knew she wanted to be a mom, but wasn't sure if she would get married, so she adopted a pretty revolutionary idea in the 1970s. She became pals with Katie Couric and Gloria Steinem. (Since her vote, John McCains thumbs-down on the Senates last-ditch attempt to kill Obamacare in 2018 has been added to that list. "I knew I wanted to parent," Margolies said. Earlier this month, in hospice care, at the end of a long battle with cervical cancer, she found words when no one else could. She made jokes that had half the room gasping in shock, the other half gasping with laughter. Life lessons from an Israeli cab driver. ", "I had done all these stories on hard-to-place kids, and I thought, 'Hmm, thats something that I could do.' | AP Photo. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. At weddings, at funerals, at family dinners and raucous parties, she would walk into a room, assess the situation, and say something that cut right to the crux of things. Her house burned down over the summer and is not yet rebuilt. A half-dead economy, the confirmation hearings of Justice Clarence Thomas and an insurgent electorate across the country have launched hundreds of candidacies that otherwise never would have been contemplated this year. Let me say, that there are moments where I have been laying on the sofa saying, 'why did I get into this? She told her adoptive mother, the former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Margolies, how to begin her eulogy: "Tell them, 'She was always my favorite child.' She was just so easy, her mother said. The implication of this, Fenton tells me, is that nothing is as important as what she needed personally, politically, and therefore she would have no problem conscience-wise to sign onto this lawsuit. "I can't believe you're so relaxed," voter Sandy Levitt marveled to Mezvinsky last weekend at a crafts fair where she was trolling for votes. The couple would go on to have two biological children. It was fun.". EIN: 06-1320335; Classification () Private Grantmaking Foundations (Philanthropy, Voluntarism and Grantmaking Foundations) ; Nonprofit Tax Code Designation: 501(c)(3) Defined as: Organizations for any of the following purposes: religious, educational, charitable, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition (as long as it doesn . The personal which she got to in part through the professional is that she is the mother of 11 children. "And a lot of those feelings she put in jars, figuratively speaking, and left them there.". If she didn't, she just didn't do it," Margolies said - but was unmistakably bright, and went to the University of Pennsylvania, her mother's alma mater, on a lacrosse scholarship. She said, I think that she has unfinished business. (Tonight, were all on a first-name basis with the Clintons.) A year later, while reporting for an NBC affiliate in New York on the Vietnamese "baby lift," she came to Washington to interview then-Rep. Edward Mezvinsky, fell instantly in love and married him. she asked drily on a video Margolies took of that trip. And I told him, Your first born.. Do they ally themselves with a flawed political candidate ahead of Hillarys likely presidential run, or do they turn their backs on their family? Elected in 1992dubbed the Year of the Woman, after the female representation of Congress doubledshe was a staunch feminist who had recently given up a career as an Emmy-Award winning television journalist. My dad was tikkun-ish, she said. Sons Mark and Andrew are the only children living at home, although others come for weekends and a Vietnamese refugee family of five has been in residence since 1979. Dale Russakoff is the author of "The Prize," published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. That Margolies generally resists dishing about the Clintons doesnt mean theyre secretly best friends. She was always the most fun to be around.". My father, who was a gem, got a job at RCA in the Philadelphia area, but he commuted there so I could finish high school, she said. After briefly attending Columbia University, Margulies began working for Munsey's Magazine, selling subsidiary rights to its stories. Its a very Jewish question. The youngest children flocked to Holly. Her career ended for a second time in 2000. Her old friend Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of state, is headlining the night. I felt the budget cuts didnt go far enough, she wrote in her 1994 book A Womans Place: The Freshmen Women Who Changed the Face of Congress. Shes like Zelig. Even in this new congressional race, many of her donors out of the gate have been classic FOB types that shes had little to do with for the last two decades, and maybe never had anything to do with in the first place: Lanny Davis, Vernon Jordan, Harold Ickes, Bob Rubin. I dont know, Margolies says, when I put it to her, over hors doeuvres at a restaurant before the Albright fundraiser. Three years later, Margolies drew on that experience to found Womens Campaign International, a globe-trotting nonprofit she still leads today. But that's the point. Vote for me!, Whether the scandal still qualifies as a career-ender more than a decade later depends on whom you ask. WASHINGTON -- A single woman adopting a child hardly raises an eyebrow these days. I realized the challenges. When she still was a reporter, Ms. Margolies did a series of stories on international adoption. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. ', Margolies, who had done a TV series on hard to place adoptive children, asked WCAU-TV if she could do a story in Korea, 'because there were lots of kids who were coming from there.'. She had fought to the end. In a last-ditch attempt at an insanity defense, he sued Fenton for prescribing him an anti-malaria drug that he said exacerbated his ostensible bipolar disorder, resulting in bouts of manic-depressive behavior, which in turn caused him to rob people. Please enter valid email address to continue. "She was always looking for cute guys for me," said Couric. Theres a fork in Mas leg!, Lets not forget when considering the pitfalls of mnemonics, Barnert Temple workshop provides food for thought and fresh insights, Looking back at a very difficult year with very real hope, Cemetery Association of Northern New Jersey will mark graves in 18 cemeteries, JYC, a Friday-night group for young professionals, grows in Morristown, Empty pews the decline of religion in America. She had been the first single woman in U.S. history to adopt a kid from a foreign country: Lee Heh, a South Korean girl, who eventually became one of 11 children Margolies would consider her owna large family including her biological, adopted, step- and surrogate children. She took four ballet classes a week, played team sports, was head cheerleader and an honors student, and finished junior high school in two years. Lee Heh arrived from Korea in 1970 and was joined four years later by Holly from Vietnam. Lee Heh Margolies was 15 when she was chosen from hundreds of applicants to join a select group of 101 congressional pages in Washington, D.C. and first appeared on the December issue of People . They had two sons, Jude and Trent. Mr. Mezvinsky has four daughters from his previous marriage,. Some are parents; she has 21 grandchildren so far. I knew that it was something I truly wanted to do. Thirty-nine years after she left, Holly went to Vietnam in 2012, with Margolies. Its easy to describe what it feels like to have a conversation with her shes warm, charming, smart, honest, wide-ranging, open, and avowedly Luddite. (See below.). Three, her son Marc married Chelsea Clinton. Class: residential (per ft 2) Non-usable Sale for Assessment. "There's a lot of tumult," Mezvinsky said, "but the upside is there is always someone there. I have been living Sunday, April 30, Brunch 9:45 a.m.;10:30 program, Art, grief, and living with and through tragedy, Israeli-born pianist, about to play at NJPAC, praises his teachers and mentors, Reflections on the root and meaning of spinal pain, Livingston shul to hear NCJWs national president outline the progress and challenges, Mom and Dad never felt insecure about Social Security. A household of 15 kept things interesting. 'As I was getting ready to leave Korea, they said, 'we've picked a little girl for you.' "She was always doing three things at once. And she would seemingly do something for you, but then call in the obligation at another time. Rather, the fallout came after Mezvinsky was charged. The lease is up this weekend on the king-size rental where she and her household of 12 moved in the meantime, and they have nowhere to go. Her communications director, now CNN anchor Jake Tapper, was the son of the family pediatrician, and got the job when he tired of film school in Los Angeles. The seat had been held by a Republican since 1916, but she won as a Democrat. It was an excuse to get over there, and it worked. Edition of Quad-City Times. A group of women came to me and asked me to run. She thought about it, calculated the odds of winning but I always told my kids that you cant win if you arent prepared to lose and decided to try, although I had to give up a job that I really liked, she said. Ms. Margolies considered running a few other times, for a few other seats and got as far as a primary, but her elective career ended in 1994. After reporting a story for Philadelphia television on hard-to-place Korean orphans, she was moved to adopt one, and persuaded reluctant adoption officials to let her become the mother of 6-year-old Lee Heh in 1970. I realized the challenges.". "Now here's a great story," she said last weekend, introducing a couple of reporters to Rosemary Keane, who just quit the Republican Committee in the town of Ambler because she couldn't bring herself to vote for President Bush. Recipient five Emmy Awards, American Bar Association award for distinguished contribution to public understanding American system of law and justice; Columbia Broadcasting System News Foundation fellow Columbia . the mom of 11 kids shares how she became the first single woman in the U.S. believed to have adopted internationally. Snares Daley NEW YORK - Lee Heh Margolies, 11-year-old stepdaughter of Rep. Ed Mezvinsky, D-Iowa, Is an accredite. Last weekend in the town of Ambler, she was confronted by a woman who declared herself to be against abortion rights. One, President Bill Clinton personally convinced her to cast a tie-breaking vote on his infamous 1993 budget bill that cost the Pennsylvania congresswoman her job. She gave speeches at memorials that made everyone cry and laugh in the same breath. But I would like to give credit where credit is due and give a shoutout to Jo the Genius and the Apple Store in Garden Abe Foxman analyzes the profound divisions behind Israels struggles, Shes 83, on a visit, and protesting in Jerusalem, Local woman in Israel on nature trip joins and describes two demonstrations. Lee Heh would become her daughter. Lee Heh could get only a student visa, and she was the youngest student ever to get one. Eventually, the adoption went through. Margolies told TODAY. He is a member of the House Judiciary and Government Operations Committees and serves on the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. That little girl, 7-year-old Lee Heh, became Ms. Margolies' first child; Ms. Margolies is said to have been the first single American woman to adopt a child internationally. "Sometimes, it was political. "Margie has always kept me busy," said her mother, now a volunteer for her daughter's campaign. After planning for months and talking about it for months and anticipating it for months, I am finally in Israel. Mezvinsky's is definitely one of the more unusual. Rumors of romance followed. The. "She was like a mother hen -- but she's too chic to be a mother hen. "It's a very difficult issue for many people," Mezvinsky said, then suddenly focused in on the woman's chubby, blue-eyed baby. She's very plugged in to their emotions, but they could wear pajamas to school and it wouldn't bother Margie if it didn't bother them. She comes in, she meets with [Hillary], but [Hillary] doesnt do a shout-out for her. He adds, I am fairly confident by the end of this campaign that well see the Clintons help a lot. Its certainly plausible: Margolies has already received a $2,600donation from Bill and a surrogate in the person of Madeleine Albright. Lee Margolies lives in Montclair, NJ; previous city include New York NY. She is the former Marjorie Margolies, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for WRC-TV from 1975 until 1990, more recently of the "Today" show. She tried to rest after a life spent on the go. Ms. Margolies also writes about grief, and coping with it, in her new book. After that, three key developments occurred. My parents had sponsored two young women to come to the U.S., one was from Bolivia and one was from Spain. Margolies became a network correspondent, then got into politics and was elected to Congress and met a man with four daughters of his own. 'I think I was the first single woman in the United States to adopt a. ), This story is an absolute lie, she said, but she tells it with glee. And given that Chelsea has said she hopes 2014 will be the year of the baby, Margoliess ties to the Clintons might soon become even stronger. I hope she wins.". Timeless Lessons From the Front Lines of Motherhood.". "I had done lots of stories on hard-to-place kids," Margolies said - kids from war zones, kids who had grown up on the streets. She endured grueling chemotherapy sessions. Between them, they had 11 children. Oh, and she had a family of five Vietnamese refugees live in the family house as well; she became the legal guardian to three of that familys children, and theyre all still part of the family. We just lost a lot of stuff.' And Ed adored her. But Mezvinsky hopes the desire to reject career politicians is more powerful than that, and she has won the endorsements of all three major daily newspapers in the district. In 1973, an adoption agency sent her a photo of the 6-year-old she would name Holly, staring into the camera with a slight smile, holding a placard with her name and birth date. MOUNTAIN AVE. MONTCLAIR, NJ Seller: KINARD, DAVID M. & ELIZABETH F. 221 NO. The whole family gathers at Marc Mezvinskys wedding to Chelsea Clinton. What she did next changed history. They all learned from each other. Simon van Zuylen-Wood is a reporter forPhiladelphia magazine. It all began when Marjorie Margolies got a reporting assignment in Korea. ". As we walk along the road to find a cab, Ukrainian familys escape is supported, filmed by local shul, Abraham Foxman talks about the Holocaust from his vantage point as a child survivor, Rachel Kahn of Fort Lee embraces her new role as director of North Jersey-Rockland JNF, Jews, Muslims share iftar at Shomrei Torah in Wayne, Randolph woman joins nonprofit to work with young Jews on making things better, Looking back at what we remember, what we miss, and what we take with us, Cantor Lenny Mandels life experiences allow him to conduct funerals of depth and meaning, American Jewish criticism of Israel is increasingly ignorant and libelous, Netanyahus assault on democracy hits a speed bump. Lee Heh could get only a student visa, "and she was the youngest student ever to get one." Eventually, the adoption went . But she has at least one not insignificant thing going for hera very personal tie to a very powerful family. She never lost her stubborn streak - "If she wanted to do something, she got an A+. Was there anything particularly Jewish about her life? Can you really think the Clintons were happy to have their only daughter caught up in this complicated and not fully ethical family? The degree to which the Clintons dive intoand quite possibly make the differencein Margoliess campaign might depend on the answer to that question. But sometimes its just literally true. ", So it was with the decision to run for Congress. Serving as guardians for this massive brood can be a costly endeavor, she admits,but cares little about the expense. Me. At this point, winning is anything but certain. Two, her now-ex husband went to jail for running a Ponzi scheme. At 6:30 p.m. on Halloween night, Marjorie Margoliess black SUV pulls up to a handsome colonial in the Philadelphia suburbs where a campaign fundraiser is being held in her honor. Three weeks later, she declared bankruptcy too and dropped out of the race; creditors were asking the two of them for more than $7 million. She arrived angry, convinced her birth mother had abandoned her. Ms. Margolies runs with her two young daughters. Lee Heh Margolies, Age 59 aka Elleheh Margolies, Lee Hem Margolies, Margolies Lee, L Margolies Current Address: NNME Erwin Park, Montclair, NJ Past Addresses: New York NY, Montclair NJ +5 more Phone Number: (973) 632- BYJX +9 phones Email Address: See available information UNLOCK PROFILE Phone & Email (10) All Addresses (8) Family (5) Social Court "Now this is a beautiful baby," she cooed and segued on to the next voter. Timeless Lessons from the Frontlines of Motherhood., Get The Jewish Standard Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories She shares her role as a proud grandparent with former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She met babysitters who told stories of her cajoling candy from American GIs, and family members who remembered hiding under the bed with an infant Holly as bombs fell on a nearby Army base in Nha Trang. Danish did not disappoint. The suit didnt stick, and Mezvinsky eventually went to prison. Margolies married Ed Mezvinsky in 1975, and four years later they took in a Vietnamese boat family which includes Suu, her son Vu, 10, and Suu's two nephews, Hai, 23, and Dang, 21. But Mr. Chelsea himself, Goldberg says, views it as a serious political liability. Holly Thi Werth (Margolies) passed away on May 3, 2016, in her home in Boise with her family at her bedside. She tried to get up and leave with them sometimes, even toward the end. Babka in Israel, part 4 relax, its the last part! Margolies (with Marc) at her swearing in ceremony in 1993. delphia, where her father retired as a purchasing agent for the RCA Corporation. At 25 and single, her own efforts to adopt and start a family were foiled until another assignment, the pertinent topic: hard to place children. The bureaucratic part of it wasn't easy. Seven-year-old Lee Heh Kyung was a parent's dream of loving and intelligent cooperation--so much so that the few ripples on the surface (her fear of speaking Korean, her worry about her Oriental eyes) were perhaps too easily smoothed over. "They picked Holly, who was 6. Although shes deemed it appropriately transactional to name-drop the machatunimat political fundraisers, her longtime consultant and campaign fixer, Ken Smukler, says that certain details are out of bounds. She spent a long time looking into adoption in Korea; literally, as I was ready to leave, they said, We have picked a little girl for you. That little girl, 7-year-old Lee Heh, became Ms. Margolies first child; Ms. Margolies is said to have been the first single American woman to adopt a child internationally.

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