Covington’s Eizenstat Receives Leo Baeck Medal

Covington’s Eizenstat Receives Leo Baeck Medal

January 16, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC, January 16, 2014 —Stuart Eizenstat, co-chair of Covington & Burling’s international trade and finance practice, was honored by the Leo Baeck Institute with its prestigious Leo Baeck Medal at the Center for Jewish History in New York City on Jan. 14.

The medal was presented by Michael Blumenthal, former Secretary of the Treasury and now the director of the Jewish Museum of Berlin, in recognition of Ambassador Eizenstat’s advocacy for Holocaust victims and their heirs.

As the Clinton Administration’s special representative on Holocaust-era issues, Ambassador Eizenstat negotiated landmark agreements with Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, and other countries, covering the restitution of property, compensation payments to slave and forced laborers, recovery of looted art and bank accounts and payment of insurance policies. Last month Secretary of State John Kerry appointed him as his special adviser on Holocaust Issues.

The Leo Baeck Institute is a research institute dedicated to the preservation of German-Jewish culture from pre-World War II to present day. Past recipients of the award include James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank; Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to the United States and United Kingdom; Joschka Fischer, former foreign minister of Germany; Angela Merkel, chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; and Maestro Kurt Masur, music director emeritus of the New York Philharmonic.