Ackerman, Gary Leonard, 1942-

Gary Leonard Ackerman (born November 19, 1942) is an American educator, newspaper editor and publisher, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he notably served as the U.S. Representative from New York's 7th (1983-1993) and 5th (1993-2013) congressional districts.

Born in Brooklyn, New York and raised in Flushing, Queens, he attended schools in New York City, graduating from Brooklyn Technicasl High School before earning a B.A. degree from Queens College. After college, Ackerman became a New York City School teacher where he taught social studies, mathematics, and journalism to junior high school students in Queens. He also briefly attended St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens. In 1970, he left teaching to start a weekly community newspaper in Queens called The Flushing Tribune which soon became the Queens Tribune. Ackerman served as its editor and publisher. After falling short in his 1977 bid for a seat on the New York City Council, he served as a member of the New York state senate from 1979 to 1983. After incumbent Congressman Benjamin Rosenthal died one day into the Ninety-eighth Congress, Ackerman won the March 1983 special election for his 7th district seat.

Among Ackerman's significant legislative undertakings, was the passage of his Baby AIDS amendment to the Ryan White Care Act. The measure requires mandatory HIV testing of newborns and disclosure of the results to the mother. In his capacity as the then Chairman of the Asia Subcommittee, Ackerman made history in the 1990s by traveling to North Korea to discuss non-proliferation. Upon his return to South Korea, Ackerman became the first person since the Korean War to cross the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone). He convinced the German government to establish a US$110 million fund to compensate 18,000 Holocaust survivors and to investigate whether 3,300 former Nazi soldiers now living in the U.S. and collecting German pensions are war criminals. Ackerman is also well known for his many missions to feed the starving people of Ethiopia and the Sudan and for playing a leading role in the rescue of Ethiopian Jews and aiding their emigration to Israel. Active in the Middle East peace process, Ackerman has met with the current and most past Israeli prime ministers and the heads of all the Arab countries in an effort to help secure peace in the region.

On March 15, 2012, Ackerman announced that he would retire at the end of the 112th Congress on January 3, 2013 after fifteen terms, and would not seek re-election in November 2012.