President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint several individuals to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, including Menachem Z. Rosensaft, who is a distinguished visiting lecturer at .
The United States Holocaust Memorial Council oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
“This is a tremendous honor for Professor Rosensaft, who has led a remarkable life and demonstrated his commitment to service and scholarship,” says College of Law Dean Hannah R. Arterian. “The College of Law is fortunate to count him as a faculty member. He brings an incredible amount of passion and knowledge to the classroom experience.”
Born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, he is vice president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants. Rosensaft is general counsel of the World Jewish Congress and also an adjunct professor of law at Cornell Law School.
In June 2009, Rosensaft served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Conference on Holocaust Era Restitution Issues in Prague. He has previously served two terms on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, and chaired its content committee, collections and acquisitions committee, and committee on governance. Rosensaft is also a past president of Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan and a former national president of the Labor Zionist Alliance.
Rosensaft earned a bachelor’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University in 1971, together with a master’s degree from the Writing Seminars. He earned a master’s degree in modern European history from Columbia University in 1975, and his J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law in 1979. After clerking for two years for the Hon. Whitman Knapp, United States District Court Judge for the Southern District of New York, he was a litigator at several New York law firms and an international bank, headed a foundation engaged in cultural activities in Central and Eastern Europe, and was general counsel of a major financial services firm in New York.
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