Jerome J. Shestack
Encyclopedia
Jerome Joseph "Jerry" Shestack (February 11, 1923 – August 18, 2011), was a Philadelphia lawyer and human rights
advocate active in Democratic Party
politics who served as president of the American Bar Association
(ABA) from 1997 to 1998. He chaired the International League for Human Rights
for twenty years, and was appointed the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1979 to 1980 by President Jimmy Carter
. Shestack was regularly listed on the National Law Journal's list of the 100 most influential U.S. lawyers.
to Jewish parents Isidore Shestack and Olga Shankman Shestack. He grew up poor; his father was a paperhanger. His grandfather, an Orthodox Rabbi, was an early influence, telling him "Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue." When he was ten, the family moved to the Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia
.
He graduated from Overbrook High School
in Philadelphia in 1940, where he enjoyed the school's racial and ethnic diversity and began a long passion for poetry.
He received a bachelor's degree
in history and economics in 1943 from the University of Pennsylvania
, having gone through in 2½ years.
Shestack then served in the United States Navy
from 1943 to 1946. During World War II
he was a gunnery officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga
. He was wounded during the January 21, 1945, Japanese kamikaze attack upon the ship. His kosher dietary habits
kept him from worse injury, as he avoided the pork meal that day and thus was not on the mess deck which suffered the worst of the damage.
After the war, he attained his law degree (LLB) in 1949 from Harvard Law School
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Record
.
While a student at Harvard, he launched a movement to have women admitted to the law school, which soon succeeded.
, where he advocated for blacks to be admitted to the university's law school. (One who was as a result of these efforts, Ernest Morial, went on to become the first black Mayor of New Orleans.)
He became first deputy city solicitor in Philadelphia in 1951 where he helped end segregation in swimming pools, bowling alleys, and other public places. In 1951 he married Marciarose Schleifer, who in 1971 on KYW-TV
became the first woman to anchor a prime-time TV newscast in a major city. Shestack taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
, which awarded him an Honorary Fellowship and at Rutgers. He was a Honorary Fellow of Columbia Law School
and had three honorary doctor of laws degrees. From 1955 to 1991, and again from 2009 he practiced with the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, from 1991, when he had to leave Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis after having reached the mandatory retirement age till 2009, when the law firm collapsed, he practiced with Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, chairing the litigation practice. During much of his law practice career, he concentrated on involved commercial law
and advocacy regarding appellate law.
An active Democrat, Shestack worked for Adlai Stevenson and wrote speeches for Vice President Hubert Humphrey
, Sargent Shriver
, and Senator Ed Muskie. He was a co-founder and chair of the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, chair of the International Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Human Rights, a counselor of the American Society of International Law
, a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists
, and a founding member and the first executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, convened by President John F. Kennedy
in 1963. He served on the board of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
. He wrote widely on human rights issues and other subjects. Throughout his attention to human rights, he focused upon cases that involved racial minorities, women, political prisoners, and indigents without legal representation.
His appointment as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
occurred on December 10, 1979, when he replaced the resigning Edward Mezvinsky
. As ambassador he sought to bring focus upon the poor treatment given political dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov
in the Soviet Union as well as upon the thousands who were "disappeared" during the Argentine Dirty War. Shestack's own time in the position came to an end with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan
to the presidency.
Shestack was long active in the American Bar Association
. He was a founder of the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, which became the vehicle for the ABA's support of women's rights, pro bono
work, and other legal services for the impoverished, and served as chairman of that section from 1969 to 1970. In 1973 he became the first chairman of the Commission on Mentally Disabled of the American Bar Association, where he established projects to help provide legal services and promote fights for the mentally disabled. He was chairman of ABA's Center for Human Rights.
During the controversial and eventually unsuccessful Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination
in 1987, Shestack was part of the association's committee on judicial appointments and was one of the minority report members who gave Bork a "not qualified" assessment. Shestack also gained some notoriety in 1992, during a controversy wherein the ABA refused to let Vice President and lawyer Dan Quayle
speak at its national convention, when he said that Quayle would have been invited had he been a person of "personal stature or legal ability". Shestack later acknowledged the remark had been disrespectful of Quayle's office.
He longed to serve as president of the ABA, and finally did so from 1997 to 1998. At one time he had been considered too radical to hold the post, but the ABA's political drift aligned more with him. As president of the ABA, Shestack focused on increasing professionalism within the bar, established a high level commission to review and revise the bar's model code of ethics, and initiated an ethical rule regarding pay-to-play. He convened the first ABA conferences on racism and mental health as well as the first ABA Conference on Human Rights at the U.N.
Shestack served as chair of the American Poetry Center
and as director of the American Poetry Review, which awards a prize in his honor. He was President of the Jewish Publication Society of America
, served on the board of directors of Tel Aviv University
, Hebrew University, the American Jewish Congress
, the American Jewish Committee
, and served as president of Har Zion Temple, then Philadelphia's largest Conservative Jewish
congregation. He was a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council and Chairman of that institution's Committee on Conscience.
In Philadelphia, he was often known as "Mr. Marciarose", due to the fame of his wife. The couple had two children: Jennifer Shestack Doss, a fragrance buyer for Bergdorf Goodman
, and motion picture producer Jonathan Shestack, as well as five grandchildren. The couple became active in Cure Autism Now after one of their grandchildren was discovered to be afflicted. His most prized personal possession was a book inscribed to him by Martin Luther King, Jr.
.
In 2006 he received the American Bar Association Medal, that organization's highest honor. The announcement said, "Where individuals have suffered, Jerry has helped them. His tireless efforts have served not just American jurisprudence, but truly have served the world." In 2008 he was awarded the Gruber Prize for Justice
, and in 2009 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights' Lloyd N. Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award. Summing up his own career, Shestack once said, "There is no end of just causes to pursue."
Shestack died August 18, 2011, of kidney failure at his home in Center City. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
called Shestack "a committed public servant and a dogged defender of human rights," adding, "as president of the American Bar Association, and in the years following, he set the standard for how civil society leaders can promote human rights."
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
advocate active in Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
politics who served as president of the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
(ABA) from 1997 to 1998. He chaired the International League for Human Rights
International League for Human Rights
The International League for Human Rights is a human rights organization with headquarters in New York City.Claiming to be the oldest human rights organization in the United States, the ILHR defines its mission as "defending human rights advocates who risk their lives to promote the ideals of a...
for twenty years, and was appointed the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1979 to 1980 by President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
. Shestack was regularly listed on the National Law Journal's list of the 100 most influential U.S. lawyers.
Early life, education, and military service
Shestack was born in Atlantic City, New JerseyAtlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States, and a nationally renowned resort city for gambling, shopping and fine dining. The city also served as the inspiration for the American version of the board game Monopoly. Atlantic City is located on Absecon Island on the coast...
to Jewish parents Isidore Shestack and Olga Shankman Shestack. He grew up poor; his father was a paperhanger. His grandfather, an Orthodox Rabbi, was an early influence, telling him "Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue." When he was ten, the family moved to the Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia
Wynnefield, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wynnefield is a predominantly African-American, middle-classneighborhood in West Philadelphia. Its borders are 53rd Street at Jefferson to the south, Philadelphia's Fairmount Park to the east, City Avenue to the north and the Amtrak Main Line tracks to the west.Surrounding neighborhoods include...
.
He graduated from Overbrook High School
Overbrook High School (Philadelphia)
Overbrook High School is an inner-city, public, four-year secondary school in the Overbrook section of West Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.-School:...
in Philadelphia in 1940, where he enjoyed the school's racial and ethnic diversity and began a long passion for poetry.
He received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in history and economics in 1943 from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, having gone through in 2½ years.
Shestack then served in the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
from 1943 to 1946. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
he was a gunnery officer aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga
USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)
USS Ticonderoga was one of 24 s built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for historic Fort Ticonderoga, which played a role in the American Revolutionary War...
. He was wounded during the January 21, 1945, Japanese kamikaze attack upon the ship. His kosher dietary habits
Kashrut
Kashrut is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" Kashrut (also kashruth or kashrus) is the set of Jewish dietary laws. Food in accord with halakha (Jewish law) is termed...
kept him from worse injury, as he avoided the pork meal that day and thus was not on the mess deck which suffered the worst of the damage.
After the war, he attained his law degree (LLB) in 1949 from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
, where he was editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Record
Harvard Law Record
The Harvard Law Record is an independent, biweekly student-edited newspaper based at Harvard Law School. Founded in 1946, it is the oldest law school newspaper in the United States.-Characteristics:...
.
While a student at Harvard, he launched a movement to have women admitted to the law school, which soon succeeded.
Legal career and human rights activities
Shestack clerked in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and taught as an instructor for a year at Northwestern Law School and for another year at Louisiana State UniversityLouisiana State University
Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, most often referred to as Louisiana State University, or LSU, is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name...
, where he advocated for blacks to be admitted to the university's law school. (One who was as a result of these efforts, Ernest Morial, went on to become the first black Mayor of New Orleans.)
He became first deputy city solicitor in Philadelphia in 1951 where he helped end segregation in swimming pools, bowling alleys, and other public places. In 1951 he married Marciarose Schleifer, who in 1971 on KYW-TV
KYW-TV
KYW-TV, virtual channel 3, is an owned and operated television station of the CBS Television Network, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. KYW-TV shares a studio facility with its sister station, CW flagship WPSG just north of Center City Philadelphia...
became the first woman to anchor a prime-time TV newscast in a major city. Shestack taught at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
University of Pennsylvania Law School
The University of Pennsylvania Law School, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the Ivy League, it is among the oldest and most selective law schools in the nation. It is currently ranked 7th overall by U.S. News & World Report,...
, which awarded him an Honorary Fellowship and at Rutgers. He was a Honorary Fellow of Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
and had three honorary doctor of laws degrees. From 1955 to 1991, and again from 2009 he practiced with the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, from 1991, when he had to leave Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis after having reached the mandatory retirement age till 2009, when the law firm collapsed, he practiced with Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, chairing the litigation practice. During much of his law practice career, he concentrated on involved commercial law
Commercial law
Commercial law is the body of law that governs business and commercial transactions...
and advocacy regarding appellate law.
An active Democrat, Shestack worked for Adlai Stevenson and wrote speeches for Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
, Sargent Shriver
Sargent Shriver
Robert Sargent Shriver, Jr., known as Sargent Shriver, R. Sargent Shriver, or, from childhood, Sarge, was an American statesman and activist. As the husband of Eunice Kennedy Shriver, he was part of the Kennedy family, serving in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations...
, and Senator Ed Muskie. He was a co-founder and chair of the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights, chair of the International Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Human Rights, a counselor of the American Society of International Law
American Society of International Law
The American Society of International Law is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational membership organization, based in Washington, D.C.. It was founded in 1906, and was chartered by the United States Congress in 1950...
, a Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists
International Commission of Jurists
The International Commission of Jurists is an international human rights non-governmental organization. The Commission itself is a standing group of 60 eminent jurists , including members of the senior judiciary in Australia, Canada, and South Africa and the former UN High Commissioner for Human...
, and a founding member and the first executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, convened by President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
in 1963. He served on the board of directors of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund is a national non-profit civil rights organization formed in 1968 to protect the rights of Latinos in the United States...
. He wrote widely on human rights issues and other subjects. Throughout his attention to human rights, he focused upon cases that involved racial minorities, women, political prisoners, and indigents without legal representation.
His appointment as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006...
occurred on December 10, 1979, when he replaced the resigning Edward Mezvinsky
Edward Mezvinsky
Edward "Ed" Mezvinsky is a former congressman. A Democrat, he represented Iowa's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for two terms, from 1973 to 1977....
. As ambassador he sought to bring focus upon the poor treatment given political dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist. He earned renown as the designer of the Soviet Union's Third Idea, a codename for Soviet development of thermonuclear weapons. Sakharov was an advocate of civil liberties and civil reforms in the...
in the Soviet Union as well as upon the thousands who were "disappeared" during the Argentine Dirty War. Shestack's own time in the position came to an end with the election of Republican Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
to the presidency.
Shestack was long active in the American Bar Association
American Bar Association
The American Bar Association , founded August 21, 1878, is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. The ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of academic standards for law schools, and the formulation...
. He was a founder of the ABA's Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, which became the vehicle for the ABA's support of women's rights, pro bono
Pro bono
Pro bono publico is a Latin phrase generally used to describe professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment or at a reduced fee as a public service. It is common in the legal profession and is increasingly seen in marketing, technology, and strategy consulting firms...
work, and other legal services for the impoverished, and served as chairman of that section from 1969 to 1970. In 1973 he became the first chairman of the Commission on Mentally Disabled of the American Bar Association, where he established projects to help provide legal services and promote fights for the mentally disabled. He was chairman of ABA's Center for Human Rights.
During the controversial and eventually unsuccessful Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination
Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination
The Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination refers to the 1987 nomination by President Ronald Reagan of Judge Robert Bork to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Senate rejected his nomination.-Nomination:...
in 1987, Shestack was part of the association's committee on judicial appointments and was one of the minority report members who gave Bork a "not qualified" assessment. Shestack also gained some notoriety in 1992, during a controversy wherein the ABA refused to let Vice President and lawyer Dan Quayle
Dan Quayle
James Danforth "Dan" Quayle served as the 44th Vice President of the United States, serving with President George H. W. Bush . He served as a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from the state of Indiana....
speak at its national convention, when he said that Quayle would have been invited had he been a person of "personal stature or legal ability". Shestack later acknowledged the remark had been disrespectful of Quayle's office.
He longed to serve as president of the ABA, and finally did so from 1997 to 1998. At one time he had been considered too radical to hold the post, but the ABA's political drift aligned more with him. As president of the ABA, Shestack focused on increasing professionalism within the bar, established a high level commission to review and revise the bar's model code of ethics, and initiated an ethical rule regarding pay-to-play. He convened the first ABA conferences on racism and mental health as well as the first ABA Conference on Human Rights at the U.N.
Shestack served as chair of the American Poetry Center
American Poetry Center
American Poetry Center was founded in 1983 to bring the Spoken Word to a wide range of audiences. All programs were created, developed and implemented by Margaret Chew Barringer, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. For its first decade, Jerome J. Shestack, Esq. chaired the...
and as director of the American Poetry Review, which awards a prize in his honor. He was President of the Jewish Publication Society of America
Jewish Publication Society of America
The Jewish Publication Society , originally known as the Jewish Publication Society of America, is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English...
, served on the board of directors of Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University is a public university located in Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel. With nearly 30,000 students, TAU is Israel's largest university.-History:...
, Hebrew University, the American Jewish Congress
American Jewish Congress
The American Jewish Congress describes itself as an association of Jewish Americans organized to defend Jewish interests at home and abroad through public policy advocacy, using diplomacy, legislation, and the courts....
, the American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
, and served as president of Har Zion Temple, then Philadelphia's largest Conservative Jewish
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
congregation. He was a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council and Chairman of that institution's Committee on Conscience.
In Philadelphia, he was often known as "Mr. Marciarose", due to the fame of his wife. The couple had two children: Jennifer Shestack Doss, a fragrance buyer for Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman
Bergdorf Goodman is a luxury goods department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son Andrew Goodman....
, and motion picture producer Jonathan Shestack, as well as five grandchildren. The couple became active in Cure Autism Now after one of their grandchildren was discovered to be afflicted. His most prized personal possession was a book inscribed to him by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
.
In 2006 he received the American Bar Association Medal, that organization's highest honor. The announcement said, "Where individuals have suffered, Jerry has helped them. His tireless efforts have served not just American jurisprudence, but truly have served the world." In 2008 he was awarded the Gruber Prize for Justice
Gruber Prize for Justice
The Gruber Prize for Justice is one of five international prizes awarded by The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation, an American non-profit organization based in the U.S. Virgin Islands with offices in New York City...
, and in 2009 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights' Lloyd N. Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award. Summing up his own career, Shestack once said, "There is no end of just causes to pursue."
Shestack died August 18, 2011, of kidney failure at his home in Center City. In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
called Shestack "a committed public servant and a dogged defender of human rights," adding, "as president of the American Bar Association, and in the years following, he set the standard for how civil society leaders can promote human rights."