Stuart E. Eizenstat

Stuart E. Eizenstat of Washington, DC, is Chair of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council since 2022 and previously served as a member from 2001–2004. He is a senior member of Covington & Burling LLP’s international practice. During his public service in six administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat served as chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Carter and held a number of key roles in the Clinton Administration, including Ambassador to the European Union; Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade; Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs; and Deputy Secretary of the Treasury. He also served as a member of the White House staff for President Johnson. During the Carter Administration, Ambassador Eizenstat recommended a Presidential Commission on the Holocaust chaired by Elie Wiesel and helped draft the legislation authorizing creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In the Clinton Administration, he served as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues and during the Obama Administration as Special Advisor to Secretaries of State Clinton and Kerry on Holocaust-Era Issues, negotiating major recoveries from foreign corporations and governments on behalf of survivors and families of victims, as well as the Washington Principles on Nazi-confiscated Art with 44 nations, leading to the return of thousands of Nazi–looted artworks, books, and Jewish cultural and religious objects. He continued this work during the Trump Administration, appointed by Secretary of State Pompeo as State Department Expert Adviser on Holocaust Issues. As pro bono Special Negotiator for the Jewish Claims Conference since 2009, he has negotiated additional compensation and social services for survivors, with an increasing emphasis on home care for elderly, poor Holocaust survivors and on Holocaust issues. Ambassador Eizenstat is currently Special Adviser to Secretary of State Blinken on Holocaust Issues. He chairs the board of the Defiant Requiem Foundation, honoring the memory of the musicians and artists at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. He has received eight honorary doctorates and over 75 awards, including the Museum’s highest award, the Elie Wiesel Award, and from the governments of France (Legion of Honor), Germany, Austria, Belgium, Israel and the United States, and the Great Negotiator Award from Harvard Law School. He has authored four books: Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor & the Unfinished Business of World War II, The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces Are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States; President Carter: The White House Years; and his most recent book, The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World. He is a Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which created the Ambassador Stuart E. Eizenstat Chair of Modern Jewish History, and of Harvard Law School.

November 25, 2024