Lillian Butler Hoffman was born in 1913 and raised in Denver, Colorado. She was married to Harry Hoffman, a wealthy liquor industry merchant, and they raised three children. She was active in numerous philanthropic and activist causes throughout her life, including the American Red Cross, the National Council for Jewish Women, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Allied Jewish Community Council of Denver, and various organizations in support of Israel. Hoffman served as chairwoman of the International Committee to Save Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who helped rescue 100,000 Hungarian Jews and vanished at the end of WWII into the Soviet Gulag. Hoffman was an early pioneer of the Soviet Jewry movement, becoming active in the mid-1960s and drawing upon her community connections to help forge a vital network of similar activists in the Midwest and West. Her efforts were instrumental in creating and passing a number of U.S. Congressional amendments and bills to aid the cause to save Soviet Jews. Hoffman helped liberate many Soviet Jews, among them artists, through her work with Senator Henry Jackson on the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. Hoffman died in 1996.
From the description of Sheila Bialek collection on Lillian Hoffman Soviet Jewry activism 2010-2011. (Yeshiva University). WorldCat record id: 775685522
