Diplomatic Macher
MAN IN THE MIDDLE from page 23
when Iranian Jews, caught in the tur-
moil of the Islamic revolution, were
fleeing for their lives.
These members of the world's old-
est continuous Jewish communities
were arriving in Vienna or Rome only
to be turned back when their requests
for visas were denied by U.S. immi-
gration officials; the United States
had yet to declare them group
refugees fleeing persecution.
Eizenstat had been reading about
U.S. inaction in the face of the
Holocaust. He saw the same principle
at stake here. We couldn't simply force
these people to return to Iran," he said.
"If we did, it meant we didn't learn
anything from the Holocaust era."
President Carter, subjected to
Eizenstat's quiet persuasion, agreed:
the visa laws must be reinterpreted.
Two decades later, Eizenstat still
gets Jewish New Year's greetings from
grateful Iranian Jews in this country.
Eizenstat's growing interest in the
Holocaust also led him to write a
1978 memorandum to President
Carter proposing a special commis-
sion to create a memorial to victims.
It became the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Council, which created and
now manages the U.S. Holocaust
Memorial Museum.
"Put simply, the museum wouldn't
have happened without him," said
Mark Talisman, the former Council
of Jewish Federations Washington
representative and himself one of the
museum's founders.
Talisman pointed to another of
Eizenstat's unsung contributions: in the
late 1970s, he convinced the adminis-
tration to try a pioneering "match
grant" program with CJF for funding
refugee resettlement. The result has
been hundreds of millions of dollars
for community resettlement assistance.
"[The program] became a model
for refugee resettlement — and again,
Stuart was absolutely indispensable,"
Talisman said.
The Door Closes
Eizenstat's enormous access came to a
sudden end in 1980 after Jimmy
Carter's defeat at the hands of Ronald
Reagan, which ushered in 12 years of
Republican Party rule.
Eizenstat went back to the law
firm of Powell, Goldstein, Frazer &
Murphy, this time in its
Washington office. While his accent
still belied a Georgia upbringing, he
had become the consummate
Washington insider. Friends knew a
return to public life was inevitable.
3/5
1999
24 Detroit Jewish News
Their predictions proved accurate,
as did Eizenstat's political instincts; he
was an early supporter of a relatively
unknown governor from Arkansas
named Bill Clinton.
In the final days of the 1992 presi-
dential campaign, Eizenstat worked
tirelessly to mobilize the Jewish vote
in such key states as Illinois.
Following Clinton's election,
Eizenstat held a series of high-profile
administration posts — ambassador
to the EU, assistant secretary of com-
merce, and his present post.
In 1995, while still in Brussels,
another job was added to his portfo-
lio; Undersecretary of State Richard
Holbrooke, at the suggestion of the
World Jewish Congress, appointed
him special envoy on property restitu-
tion in Central and Eastern Europe.
With Eastern bloc archives now
open, WJC officials were intensifying
their effort to win paybacks of private
and communal property looted by
the Nazis; the key to success before
the last of the survivors died, they
knew, was massive involvement by
the U.S. government.
So in the midst of his other duties,
Eizenstat roamed Europe, negotiat-
ing, prodding, imploring govern-
ments to remove long-standing obsta-
cles to payment for personal and
communal property.
He coordinated a groundbreaking
Washington conference on Holocaust
era assets that produced what's known
as "The Eizenstat Report." Largely
because of his stature, 44 countries
participated. Eizenstat played a major
role in delicate negotiations over a
settlement by Swiss banks.
But again, many Jewish leaders
wanted more. In the Swiss gold talks,
some privately raged against
Eizenstat, claiming that he was trying
to strong-arm them into accepting an
early version of a settlement with the
Swiss they felt was inadequate.
The unflappable Eizenstat never
wavered.
Some of the Jewish participants
had, he said, "unrealistic expecta-
tions" about his role.
"I was the chief enunciator of the
government's position, which was
that we wanted a settlement," said
Eizenstat. We wanted to see justice,
but we did not want to see sanctions
imposed, or conditions put on the
merger of Swiss banks. So I was
caught in the middle again."
Several veterans of Eizenstat's
marathon negotiations on Holocaust
property restitution describe a patient
but relentless negotiating style.
Eizenstat, they say, excels at listen-
ing to all sides, encouraging partici-
pants to have their say, and then sum-
marizing positions in a way that high-
lights points of agreement. He never
gets mad and rarely expresses frustra-
tion, according to several — but he
brings to the discussions a quiet
intensity that pushes participants to
go the extra mile to reach agreement.
In 1996, Eizenstat received the
Foreign Affairs Award for Public
Service, the highest award possible for
a non-career ambassador.
His balancing act continues with
the current effort to carve out an
umbrella settlement for victims of
Nazi slave labor. About two weeks
ago he met with class-action lawyers,
a top German official and World
Jewish Congress representatives.
Although they still sometimes
grumble, Jewish activists involved
generally agree that Eizenstat has
transformed the restitution issue,
making it a government priority.
As WJC director Elan Steinberg -
agreed, "There is no more passionate
or effective advocate than Stuart
Eizenstat."
Today, more than two decades
after he arrived in Washington,
Eizenstat is a man with a full plate —
a kosher one, to be sure. The restitu-
tion issue, the Far Eastern economic
collapse, the sinking of Russia's exper-
iment in free-market economics and
the economic aspects of the Mideast
peace talks all demand his attention.
"Our foreign policy is shifting
from the emphasis on containing
communism to harnessing the forces
of the global economy," he said. "We
have to deal with both the pluses
and the minuses — the dark side of
globalization."
With his penchant for hard work
and his keen perception, few doubt
that Eizenstat is up to the job. There
also is little question that if there is
an Al Gore administration in 2001,
Stuart Eizenstat, with his skills, pas-
sion and experience, will play an
important role. Some observers are
already saying that he would make an
excellent Secretary of State.
For the•Jewish community, there's
an added dimension. As Talisman, the
former CJF Washington chief puts it,
"Smart is a modern-day example for
our children; all the rest is just detail.
I believe in Jewish and political life,
there's a convergence. It's the street
language of Torah. Stuart Eizenstat is
the paragon of that notion." L
Born:
Chicago, Ill. (1943)
Family:
*wife: Frances Carol;
two children: Jay and Brian
*Education:
University of North Carolina
honors in political science);
Harvard University (law)
Pfovernment Expe ence.
1967-68 Johnson administra-
•
Humphrey presidential
campaign r arc
director
Carter presi s entia
campaign, top adviser
77-81
Carter administration
domestic policy adviser
1993-95 U.S. ambassador
the European Union
U.S. special envoy on
property restitution
in Central and .
Eastern Europe.
996-97 Assistant Secretary
of Commerce for
International Trade
Undersecretary
of State for Economic,
Business and
Agricultural Affairs
ast Jewish Involvement:
oards of Weizmann Institute
f Science, The Jerusalem
oundation, Brandeis University,
ouncil on Foreign Relations;
American Jewish Committee,
UJA Federation of Greater
Washington, Feinberg Graduate
School of the Weizmann
Institute. Past President of the
Jewish Community Center of
Greater \X'ashington.