Leon Charney, the Jewish TV talk show host, lawyer and real estate tycoon who was said to have helped foster key backchannel negotiations between Israel and Egypt leading up to the Camp David Accords, has died.
Charney’s death was announced by Florida Atlantic University, which awarded him an honorary doctorate last December. Charney was 77 or 78.
Charney was a behind-the-scenes adviser to President Jimmy Carter when he was negotiating the Camp David Accords in the late 1970s between Israel and Egypt. For one of Charney’s books, Carter is quoted as describing Charney as “one of the unsung heroes of the peace process.”
The fortune Charney earned as a lawyer and in real estate won him a place for several years on Forbes magazine’s ranking of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Later in life, Charney was known for his cable TV show, “The Leon Charney Report,” which focused on politics and issues of Jewish interest. As host, Charney interviewed Israeli politicians, generals and entertainers, American journalists and Jewish community figures, among others.
Born in 1938 in New York to a Jewish immigrant family with little money, Charney attended Yeshiva University and helped finance his education with gigs as a synagogue cantor.
Charney, who had two children, also was involved in a number of philanthropic activities. In January, he launched the Leon Charney Resolution Center in Ramat Hasharon, Israel. — jta