Memorial Service Held for Rep. Leland

Mayor Tom Bradley and several dozen black, Jewish and community leaders paid tribute Monday to Texas Congressman Mickey Leland and philanthropist Ivan Tillem, who were killed while on a relief mission in Ethiopia.

Joining the mayor during the special memorial service in the City Hall courtyard were state Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), City Council President John Ferraro, Councilwoman Ruth Galanter and Richard Giesberg of the Jewish Federation Council.

Closing Prayer

Rabbi Albert Lewis of Temple Isaiah in West Los Angeles offered an invocation, and the Rev. Cecil Murray, pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church, gave the closing prayer.

Leland, 44, a Texas Democrat, had served in the House since 1979 and chaired the House Select Committee on Hunger.

He and 15 others, including Tillem, were killed Aug. 7 when their plane crashed into a mountainside in Ethiopia while on a famine relief mission.

Waters, who was a friend, praised Leland for his commitment “to feeding the hungry people of this world.”

In addition to his humanitarian efforts on behalf of the needy, he developed special relationships with both the black and Jewish communities and was “committed to the fact that we all can live together and respect each others differences,” Waters said.

Tillem, 32, a close friend of the congressman, was a trustee of Yeshiva University in New York, an attorney and investor with a special concern for helping the starving people in Ethiopia.