Stuart Eizenstat, an ambassador to the European Union and an undersecretary in the Clinton administration’s State and Commerce Departments, will discuss “The Future of the Jews, How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States” as the Amos Perlmutter Memorial Lecture on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:30 p.m. in the Mary Graydon Center.

Eizenstat’s talk, based on his 2012 book of the same name, published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, examines how major geopolitical, economic and security challenges are reshaping the Jewish world and its relationship with the United States. He will discuss how shifting global power away from the United States and Europe to the emerging powers in Asia and Latin America poses challenges for the Jewish community and the relationship between Israel and the United States.

In addition to Eizenstat’s talk, a student will be presented with a scholarship honoring the legacy of Rita Simon, a former American University professor and widely published author.

The event is hosted by the School of Public Affairs and Center for Israel Studies. For more information, contact Eric Fleddermann (ericf@american.edu). 

Eizenstat has a lengthy record of government service, having been director of the White House domestic policy staff under President Carter, as well as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration. A native Chicagoan and graduate of Harvard Law School, he is an attorney with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington and Burling.

In his 2004 memoir, Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II, Eizenstat draws on his experiences negotiating reparations for Holocaust survivors who were persecuted in the postwar period.

Dr. Simon, who died last year at the age of 81, joined the American University faculty in 1983. She was the former editor of three scholarly journals, American Sociological Review, Justice Quarterly and Gender Issues. She wrote or edited more than 60 books and 325 articles on immigration, public opinion, and racial and gender justice.

For 19 years before joining American University, she was a professor of sociology at the University of Illinois. She also taught at the University of Chicago and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She served on the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics created by the Secretary of Education.

Amos Perlmutter, a Washington-based political scientist, author and commentator on Middle Eastern affairs, was a beloved professor at American University from 1972 until he died in 2001. He was the author of 15 books and many articles and essays about strategic studies, military sociology and comparative politics in the Middle East.