Rudy Boschwitz

Rudy Boschwitz is a former U.S. Senator and currently chairman of Home Valu Interiors, a family business he founded in 1963.

A member of the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 1991, Boschwitz served on the Agriculture, Foreign Relations, Budget, Small Business and Veterans Affairs committees. He was also elected by his colleagues to the leadership of the Senate, the only Minnesota senator other than Hubert Humphrey to obtain a leadership post between 1950 and 2005.

In the spring of 2005, Boschwitz was nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as U.S. Ambassador and Head of Delegation to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. He also represented the President at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Austrian State Treaty in May of 2005.

Boschwitz was President George H.W. Bush’s emissary to Ethiopia in 1991. His mission resulted in Operation Solomon, the rescue of the small Black Jewish community of Ethiopia and their dramatic airlift to Israel. The negotiations also helped cause a simultaneous end to the decades-long civil war in Ethiopia. In a Rose Garden ceremony in June 1991, President Bush awarded Senator Boschwitz the Citizen’s Medal for his achievements in the Horn of Africa.

Boschwitz attended Johns Hopkins University and New York University, where he received his law degree. He has served on the boards of many organizations, including the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the American Cancer Society, Twin City Federal Financial Corporation, the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, IDT Corporation and the Friends of the World Food Program.