NCSJ - 08.26.2009

NCSJ Mourns the Passing of William Korey

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- NCSJ mourns the loss of William Korey, Ph.D., who died today at age 86.

Dr. Korey was a human rights scholar and activist who played a key role in some of the major human rights struggles of the past half-century. He held a B.A. from the University of Chicago and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University, where he was admitted to the first class of the Russian (now Harriman) Institute in 1946.

He taught at City College of New York and Columbia and later was a Visiting Professor at Yeshiva University, Brooklyn College, and YIVO, and he lectured at a wide variety of universities.

In the mid-1950’s Dr. Korey moved into human rights work. He served as a Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s regional offices in Illinois-Missouri and then in Washington, D.C. In 1960 he was chosen to become the first director of B’nai B’rith International’s United Nations Office. Subsequently, he directed the B’nai B’rith International Council and its department of International Policy Research. Dr. Korey counted as one of his major achievements helping organize the American Jewish Conference and its successor, NCSJ, for which he acted as a principal consultant.

NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, founded in 1971, represents the organized American Jewish community in monitoring and advocating on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews living in the 15 successor states of the former Soviet Union.

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B'nai B'rith	B'nai B'rith Mourns Passing of William Korey
Forward	William Korey, Soviet Jewry Activist, 87