Rep. Sala Galant Burton (D. Cal.), one of two Jewish women members of Congress, died Sunday of cancer. She was 61 years old.
Burton was elected to the House in 1983 to succeed her husband, Phillip, and was re-elected in 1984 and 1986. When she was unable to be present to be sworn in on January 6 to the 100th Congress, the House passed a resolution allowing her to be sworn in at her home. The oath was administered the next day by Rep. Don Edwards (D. Cal.), chairman of the California delegation.
Burton was born in Bialystok, Poland, and fled with her parents to the United States in 1939 ahead of the Nazi occupation of Poland. She said she learned from this experience that “politics is everybody’s experience.”
She grew up in San Francisco and represented a San Francisco district in Congress. In the House, Burton continued advocating the liberal policies of her late husband. She was also a strong advocate for the cause of Soviet Jewry.
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