Stuart E. Eizenstat

Stuart Elliott "Stu" Eizenstat (born January 15, 1943) is an American diplomat and attorney. He served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as the United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury from 1999 to 2001. For many years, and currently (as of 2018) he has served as a partner and Senior Counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Covington & Burling and as a senior strategist at APCO Worldwide.

Stuart Eizenstat
Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues
Incumbent
Assumed office December 18, 2013
President	Barack Obama Donald Trump
Preceded by	Position established
United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury
In office July 16, 1999 – January 20, 2001
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Larry Summers
Succeeded by	Kenneth Dam
Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs
In office June 6, 1997 – July 16, 1999
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Joan Spero
Succeeded by	Alan Larson
Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade
In office April 1996 – June 6, 1997
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	Timothy Hauser (acting)
Succeeded by	David L. Aaron
United States Ambassador to the European Union
In office August 2, 1993 – April 1996
President	Bill Clinton
Preceded by	James Dobbins
Succeeded by	Vernon Weaver
White House Domestic Affairs Advisor
In office January 20, 1977 – January 20, 1981
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	James Cannon
Succeeded by	Ralph Bledsoe (1985)
Personal details
Born	(1943-01-15) January 15, 1943 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Frances Eizenstat
Education	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA) Harvard University (JD)

Biography

Early life

Stuart E. Eizenstat was born on January 15, 1943 in Chicago and raised in Atlanta; he was an all-city and honorable-mention All-America basketball player in high school.[1] He earned an A.B., cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a brother of the Alpha Pi chapter of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.[2] He received his Juris Doctor degree from Harvard Law School in 1967.[2]

Career

Stuart Eizenstat and Anne Wexler, August 10, 1978

Secretary Kerry Greets Eizenstat Before Delivering Speech at U.N., 2015

He served as a law clerk for the Honorable Newell Edenfield of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

From 1977 to 1981, he was President Jimmy Carter’s Chief Domestic Policy Adviser, and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff.[2][3] In 1983, he wrote for Quarante magazine an article entitled, "The Quiet Revolution." He was the first to describe the "feminization of poverty." He was President Bill Clinton's Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1999–2001), Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs (1997–1999), and also served as the Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade at the International Trade Administration (ITA) from 1996 to 1997.[3]

He has served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as co-chairman of the European-American Business Council (EABC).[2] Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Panel Foundation.

In 2008, the Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat Distinguished Professorship in Jewish history and culture was endowed in Eizenstat's honor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For his work he has received the Courage and Conscience Award from the Government of Israel, the Knight Commander's Cross (Badge and Star) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Legion of Honor from the Government of France, and the International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution.[3]

Eizenstat is also a member of the Atlantic Council' s[4] Board of Directors.

Ambassador Eizenstat's Extensive Work on Holocaust Restitution

He has devoted much effort to various aspects of Holocaust Restitution.[5] This has included partial recompense for Slave and Forced Labor, and most recently in 2018 for the trauma suffered by Kindertransport. It has also included restitution of Holocaust Era Assets to their original owners or their heirs.

Initially he did this as President Clinton's "Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues." In this position, he took an important leadership role for many nations. He has continued this role as a private citizen.

This had been preceded by his work under President Carter (see bibliography below).

In 1998, he organized the Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets, resulting in the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art.[6]

He successfully negotiated major agreements with the Swiss, Germans, Austrian and French, and other European countries. This importantly concerned Slave and Forced Labor. It also included life insurance policy payments to heirs of victims of the Nazi Holocaust; and Holocaust Victim Bank Account assets. It also included the return of art-works to their original owners, or their heirs, which had been looted by the Nazis (many such art-works had been acquired at a later date by National or important private museums). One such art-work is Gustav Klimt's "Lady in Gold" which was returned to Maria Altmann.

Ambassador Eizenstat has acted on many occasions as a negotiator to gain payments by the current German Government to various other classes of Holocaust Survivors, or their heirs.[7]

Most recently, in 2018, he helped negotiate a symbolic payment of 2,500 Euros to those who had survived the Holocaust by having escaped it by the Kindertransport program, which had been assisted by the British Government. All parties involved agree that there is no way to "make good" to these Holocaust Survivors for the trauma they had suffered, often as very young children, when they had been separated from their parents in 1938 or 1939. Also, their extra trauma when, in 1945 or even later, nearly all of them had discovered that their parents had been murdered by the Nazis - yet this symbolic payment is an important form of official recognition for the extreme trauma they had suffered due to the Nazi Holocaust.

This statement similarly applies to the symbolic payment of 2,500 Euros to Child Holocaust Survivors, negotiated by Child Survivors in 2014 - it too cannot "make good," but it is an official recognition. In fact, for any personal victimization (murder, imprisonment, slave labor, ghetto, displacement, hiding, etc) no restitution scheme can make good - but for most of these victimizations the German Government has provided monthly continuing significant Restitution. In general, the German Government has attempted to make meaningful, if partial, restitution.

Ambassador Eizenstat has written about his earlier Restitution efforts in his 2009 book Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2009). This has been translated into German, French, Czech and Hebrew. (See bibliography, below.)

In 2013 Ambassador Eizenstat was appointed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as "Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues." As of 2017, he has remained in this position.[8]

Personal life

He was married to the late Frances Eizenstat, and has two sons and eight grandchildren.

Bibliography

• Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II. PublicAffairs. 5 August 2009. ISBN 978-0-7867-5105-1. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
• The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. 3 May 2012. ISBN 978-1-4422-1629-7. Retrieved 21 August 2013.
• President Carter: The White House Years. Thomas Dunne Books. 24 May 2018. ISBN 978-1-2501-0455-7.

See also

• Christoph Meili

References

1. Hager, George (1999-05-14). "For No. 2 Job, a Familiar Figure". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2018-07-05.
2. Covington & Burling: Stuart E. Eizenstat
3. APCO Worldwide: Stuart E. Eizenstat Archived 2010-09-20 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Board of Directors". Atlantic Council. Retrieved 2020-02-11.
5. Covington & Burling web-page http://www.cov.com/seizenstat
6. "The Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets". Fcit.usf.edu. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
7. Claims Conference http://claimscon.org
8. U.S. State Dept. https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/218946.htm

External links

• [ Taking on the Unfinished Business of the Twentieth Century]
• APCO Worldwide
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• https://www.cov.com/en/professionals/e/stuart-eizenstat

Political offices
Preceded by James Cannon	White House Domestic Affairs Advisor 1977–1981	Vacant Title next held by Ralph Bledsoe
Preceded by Timothy Hauser (Acting)	Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade 1996–1997	Succeeded by David Aaron
Preceded by Joan Spero	Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs 1997–1999	Succeeded by Alan Larson
Preceded by Larry Summers	United States Deputy Secretary of the Treasury 1999–2001	Succeeded by Kenneth Dam
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by James Dobbins	United States Ambassador to the European Union 1993–1996	Succeeded by Vernon Weaver
New office	Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues 2013–present	Incumbent