George M. Szabad, Of Pennsylvania, Honored At American Jewish Committee Annual Meeting

American Jewish Committee
Thursday, 6 May 1999

The American Jewish Committee today presented its National Distinguished Leadership Award to George M. Szabad, an Honorary AJC Vice President, member of its Board of Governors and Board of Trustees, and founding member of the National Polish American-Jewish American Council. Mr. Szabad was honored for his exemplary commitment over many decades to the ideals of Jewish philanthropic tradition and for his outstanding contributions to his community and to society.

The award was presented at a special reception prior to the Annual Dinner ceremonies of the agency's 93rd Annual Meeting, taking place through tomorrow at the Capital Hilton Hotel. Bruce M. Ramer, AJC National President, made the presentation.

Mr. Szabad, one of AJC's most active and committed leaders, has also served the organization as former president of its Westchester Chapter. His late wife, Shirley, was National Secretary of AJC and a leader in the Chapter movement. The agency's highest annual awards for achievement by local chapters are named in her honor and memory.

Mr. Szabad, a graduate of Columbia University and of its Law School, was born in 1917 in the Russian city of Gorki. His father, a student at Warsaw Polytechnic, had gone there before the German invasion. Following the Russian Revolution, the family returned to their native Warsaw where George finished his studies at Kreczmar Gimnazjum and was admitted to the University of Warsaw. After his father's death, George's mother remarried and moved the family to the United States in 1934.

At age thirty-five, Mr. Szabad became President of Tel Autograph, an old-line company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. By then he had worked for the government in the Department of Labor and the State Department, served in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) while in the Army during World War II, and practiced law as a partner in a New York law firm.

He had also been involved in United Nations relief efforts and had served as a consultant to U.N. committees. After Tel Autograph, he moved on to the multinational Burndy Corporation, where he remained as Senior Vice President and as Director until retirement.

He has served in leadership posts at the Dibner Fund and the Burndy Library and as a member of Institute Boards at Brandeis and M.I.T. A former Mayor and Board of Education President in Scarsdale, New York, Mr. Szabad was long active in Scarsdale civic affairs and received the Scarsdale Bowl. He currently resides and is a member of the Board at the Quadrangle in Haverford, Pennsylvania, a retirement community which is the flagship of the Marriott Senior Living Services Division.

In paying tribute to Mr. Szabad, Mr. Ramer spoke of his nearly half-century of intense involvement with AJC noting that "George has brought to bear, on a range of critical issues, not only his keen management expertise, but also his profound ethical sensibility and abiding social conscience. A bridge-builder, he embraces AJC's vision of safeguarding the American pluralist miracle and extending it for Jews and all people everywhere, particularly in the post-communist world. We are proud to honor him today and pay tribute to his extraordinary contributions, as we gratefully acknowledge his friendship, his warmth, and his inspiring example -- in leadership and in life."

In accepting the honor, Mr. Szabad commented: "Having spent more than half a lifetime with the American Jewish Committee, I feel its most important quality is its balance of Jewish and American values and interests. For me, AJC's important activities, although by no means its only, are in the area of human bridge building as well as our work strengthening Jewish peoplehood around the world, especially in post-communist countries. Here, too, AJC stresses both the Jewish and universal values in the hope that the American pluralist miracle can be at least partly used as a model for Jews everywhere to live proudly as Jews and as first-class citizens of their societies."

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org