Executive orders and new legislation have helped
the department freeze accounts, impose closer super-
vision on money flows, and target 22 foreign terrorist
organizations with global reach. The latter category
was extended in November to include anti-Israel
groups like Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
The battle enlists Treasury components such as
Customs, the Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Secret
Service. Like the Pentagon, Treasury coordinates
with foreign counterparts through a new "war room"
and chairs a domestic interagency task force includ-
ing State, Justice, the CIA and FBI.
LaKritz calls this heightened level of national and
international cooperation "pretty incredible." He
takes it as a sign that in the post-Cold War era the
importance of the Treasury Department has grown.
He expresses appreciation tinged by wonder that he
is so close to the center of the action.

Adventurer At Heart

LaKritz does not see international terrorism as the
evil stepchild of a global economy.
"Because of globalization there's a more active,
fluid international system," he said. You have less
bin Ladens, not more. Imagine a world where every-
thing was shut off, where U.S. culture was not able
to penetrate — that's a world before 1776." Instead,
he thinks the anti-terrorism coalition "speaks to how
much our values have become harmonized" around
the world.
This theoretical outlook seems to reflect LaKritz's
individual interests and personality, which includes a
focus on business and entrepreneurship, a love of
adventure and baseball.
For example, despite his Republican affiliation,
when he was at Emory, he worked for a year on
selective internships at the center founded by former
Democratic President Jimmy Carter. These dealt
mainly with Western businesses in China and how
companies like Nike and Reebok could comply with
what human rights groups wanted of them in their
dealings with Chinese labor.
His Asian connection deepened after his first year
at Emory.
"I spent the summer of '95 in China, the first half
studying law in Shanghai, and the second half trav-
eling to Mongolia and Tibet," he said.
While earning a certificate of foreign legal studies
from East China University of Politics and Law,
LaKritz managed to work in a climb on Mt. Everest,
making it to base camp No. 3 at 19,500 feet.
"You need oxygen at that level," he said. "Then
the weather turned 'inhospitable' — meaning you
had to descend quickly."
At the base of Everest, LaKritz and a climbing
partner, a French Jew, traded a pair of sneakers for
23 eggs. "We had a Shabbat dinner and feasted on
the eggs — without bread." After nearly four
months in Asia, he said, "All I wanted was a bagel."
He had learned mountain climbing when he left
the University of Michigan for a semester during his
junior year to study at Franklin College of .
Switzerland. In the classroom, LaKritz focused on
Russian economics. Outside, it was ice picks, cram-
pons, guides and a climb of famed Mt.• Eiger.

Robb LaKritz,
in the U.S.
Treasury
Building.

Photo by Lloyd Wolf

He celebrated his 23rd birthday, July 8, 1995,
atop Mt. Kilimanjaro. He also has climbed in
Alaska, and every year likes to take two weeks and
visit another country off the beaten path. Last year it
was Bolivia.
"I'm really an adventurer at heart," he said.

Sports And Politics

LaKritz also describes himself as a big fan of the
Detroit Tigers. When he was at Emory, he went to a
few Atlanta Braves' games — including one World
Series contest — but, he recalled, they "were just
not the same."
Regardless, LaKritz is one of relatively few fans
with a direct Hall of Fame connection.
Dale Petrosky, a Reagan administration official
and Michigan native, is president of the Baseball
Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He met LaKritz
through Republican Parry circles and asked him to
join the Hall's national advisory board to help with
fund raising. That's why LaKritz and his father,
Barry, turned up at last year's Hall of Fame induc-
tion ceremonies, talking baseball with former

Yankees hero Yogi Berra, Tiger All-Star Al Kaline
and other diamond greats.
Given that American Jews continue to vote over-
whelmingly for Democrats, how did LaKritz identify
early and firmly as a Republican?
"There is something about the American dream,
of entrepreneurship and self-reliance, that I just
love," he said. "The idea that anyone, from any-
where, can come to America, set up a business, buy
a home and live the dream.
His great-grandfather was an immigrant to
Detroit who started a furniture store. LaKritz still
finds it amazing and inspiring that not only did the
family take root and prosper, but that one of the
descendants works across the walk from the White
House.
During last year's presidential campaign, LaKritz
went to round up Hungarian-American votes in
southwest Detroit, in Delray, where his own grand-
mother, Budapest native Dolly Weinstein, grew up.
He was reminded of the vibrancy of Detroit, a place
where, he says, "people produce things."
One of his goals is, eventually, "to help rebuild
Detroit." It sounds like another adventure.

❑

12/21
2001

17

