WASHINGTON (JTA) — Three Jewish leaders were among the 15 people who received the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom award last month.
Arnold Aronson, Sol Linowitz and the late Albert Shanker received the nation’s top civilian honor.
Aronson was physically unable to make it to the White House, but he was there in spirit, said family and friends. “He was very moved,” said Aronson’s son, Bernard. “He’s sort of an unknown hero because he never sought recognition and I think that’s very much in keeping with tzedakah (charity).”
Aronson, who lives in Wheaton, Md., and is battling pancreatic cancer, is the former program director of the National Jewish Community Relations Council, now called the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA). He also co-founded the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, cited as a driving force behind passage of the landmark civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s.
In awarding Aronson the medal, President Clinton quoted the late civil rights leader Clarence Mitchell Jr., who said, “There would not have been a civil rights movement without the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and there would not have been a Leadership Conference on Civil Rights without Arnie Aronson.”
Albert Chernin, executive vice chair emeritus of JCPA, said, “It was Arnie who always introduced a calm, rational and dispassionate approach to the issues that always brought people together.”
Another medal recipient recognized for his negotiating skills was Linowitz. He has held a number of key diplomatic positions and served as chairman of the board of the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary. Also, along with fellow recipient David Rockefeller, he founded a volunteer program that sends American executives to developing countries.
“It’s an honor I’d always thought of with awe,” Linowitz said of the medal, which he called gratifying and unexpected.
Clinton said the medal is well deserved. “If every world leader had half the vision Sol Linowitz does, we’d have about a 10th as many problems as we’ve got,” he told the crowd at the medal ceremony.
Jewish leaders praised Linowitz, too. “He’s truly a genius on analyzing international relations and diplomatic relations. There’s almost an encyclopedic knowledge of world affairs and a truly intuitive sense of what is really realistic and what can really be achieved,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Saperstein also praised Shanker, for “advancing the cause of education and teaching.” Shanker was president of the American Federation of Teachers and secretary of the Jewish Labor Committee.