WASHINGTON—The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has awarded Covington senior counsel Stuart Eizenstat with its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, recognizing internationally prominent individuals whose actions have advanced the museum’s vision of a world where people confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.
In selecting Ambassador Eizenstat, the museum recognized his leadership during the Carter administration in creating the presidential commission on the Holocaust chaired by Elie Wiesel, which led directly to the United States Memorial Museum, and his decades-long efforts in bringing the issue of Holocaust justice back to the world’s agenda after decades of indifference, They also noted his singular role in advancing the permanence of Holocaust memory, as well as his negotiations during several U.S. Presidential administrations with multiple countries and private companies to provide compensation and restitution for hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors worldwide. He continues his work for Holocaust justice as the Special Negotiator for the Jewish Claims Conference in its negotiations with Germany, and as Expert Adviser to the State Department on Holocaust-Era Issues.
Ambassador Eizenstat’s work at Covington focuses on resolving international trade problems and business disputes with the U.S. and foreign governments, and international business transactions and regulations on behalf of U.S. companies and others around the world.
During a decade and a half of public service in four U.S. administrations, Ambassador Eizenstat held a number of key senior positions, including chief White House domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter; U.S. 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 in the Clinton Administration, where he also served as Special Representative of the President and Secretary of State on Holocaust-Era Issues. In the Obama administration, Ambassador Eizenstat served as Special Adviser on Holocaust-Era Issues to Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. He was appointed as Expert Adviser to the State Department on Holocaust-Era Issues by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a position he continues to hold in the Biden administration.
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