NJDC Mourns the Loss of Hyman Bookbinder, Key Founder

WASHINGTON, DC- The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) remembers one of our key founders, Hyman Bookbinder, who passed away today following a storied career in Jewish communal service. He was the inaugural recipient of NJDC’s Hubert H. Humphrey Humanitarian Award, NJDC’s highest honor—which was later bestowed to President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore—and most recently served on NJDC’s Chairman’s Council.

NJDC President and CEO David A. Harris said:

“Hyman Bookbinder was more than just a pillar of the Jewish community and NJDC, he was a treasure of our people. He helped the administrations of Presidents Johnson and Kennedy, and played a central role with the American Jewish Committee before helping to establish our organization. But the profound impact of his life—pursuing social justice and helping to protect Israel—will truly be felt for generations to come. It’s for these reasons that we chose Bookie to be the inaugural recipient of the Hubert H. Humphrey Humanitarian Award, the highest honor we could bestow.

“On behalf of the entire NJDC family, we extend our deepest condolences to Bookie’s beloved, Ida, his daughters and grandchildren. It’s genuinely hard to describe how large a hole his passing leaves within the American Jewish community, and within our nation. May Bookie’s memory always serve as a blessing.”

Bookbinder led a long and distinguished career in Jewish communal activism, particularly as the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) Washington representative from 1967 until 1986. Prior to his work with AJC, Bookbinder was an economist for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and a legislative representative for the Conference of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which later became the AFL-CIO. Bookbinder also served in President John F. Kennedy’s Administration as an assistant to the Commerce Secretary and was an executive officer of the President’s Task Force on Poverty during the Johnson Administration. He was also a special assistant to Vice President Hubert Humphrey. President Jimmy Carter appointed Bookbinder to serve on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which founded the museum in Washington, DC.

In his memoir, Off the Wall, Memoirs of a Public Affairs Junkie, Bookbinder observed:

If it should be true that in my lifetime I have helped even one Jew or one Haitian or one Pole escape persecution; if I have helped even one ghetto youngster escape poverty; if I have helped one daughter of a Tennessee shirtmaker get to play on her own piano…If these things are indeed true, then all that is left to say is I thank God that I was given some opportunities to help make life a little easier, a little sweeter, a little more secure, for some fellow human beings. [AJC Press Release, July 21, 2011]