{{short description|American lawyer}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Jerome Shestack | image = Jerome_J._Shestack.jpg | caption = Shestack in 2008 | order = | title = [[United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights]] | term_start = December 10, 1979 | term_end = 1980 | president = [[Jimmy Carter]] | predecessor = [[Edward Mezvinsky]] | successor = [[Michael Novak]] | birth_date = February 11, 1923 | birth_place = [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|8|18|1923|2|11}} | death_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]] | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] | alma_mater = [[University of Pennsylvania]]<br>[[Harvard Law School]] | spouse = Marciarose Schleifer | birth_name = Jerome Joseph Shestack }}
'''Jerome Joseph "Jerry" Shestack''' (February 11, 1923 – August 18, 2011) was a [[Philadelphia]] lawyer and [[human rights]] advocate active in [[Democratic Party (United States)|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. He had multiple grandchildren the youngest being Andrew Justice Doss.
==Early life, education, and military service== Shestack was born in [[Atlantic City, New Jersey]]<ref name="carter">{{cite web | url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=31803#axzz1VnlagYL5 | title=Jimmy Carter: United Nations Commission on Human Rights Appointment of Jerome J. Shestack as U.S. Representative. | publisher=[[The White House]] | date=December 10, 1979}}</ref> to Jewish parents Isidore Shestack and Olga Shankman Shestack.<ref name="JMorrison"/> He grew up poor; his father was a paperhanger.<ref name="MKlein"/> His grandfather, an [[Orthodox Rabbi]], was an early influence, telling him "Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue."<ref name="MKlein"/> When he was ten, the family moved to the [[Wynnefield, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|Wynnefield neighborhood of Philadelphia]].<ref name="MKlein"/> He graduated from [[Overbrook High School (Philadelphia)|Overbrook High School]] in Philadelphia in 1940, where he enjoyed the school's racial and ethnic diversity and began a long passion for poetry.<ref name="MKlein"/>
He received a [[bachelor's degree]] in history and economics in 1943 from the [[University of Pennsylvania]],<ref name="WNaedele">{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-20/news/29909488_1_human-rights-human-rights-leader-poetry-readings/3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906044028/http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-20/news/29909488_1_human-rights-human-rights-leader-poetry-readings/3|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 6, 2012|title=Jerome J. Shestack, 88, lawyer and human-rights leader|date=August 20, 2011|author=Walter F. Naedele|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]}}</ref> having gone through in 2½ years.<ref name="MKlein"/>
Shestack then served in the [[United States Navy]] from 1943 to 1946.<ref name="carter"/> During [[World War II]] he was a [[gunnery officer]] aboard the aircraft carrier [[USS Ticonderoga (CV-14)|USS ''Ticonderoga'']].<ref name="JMorrison"/> He was wounded during the January 21, 1945, Japanese [[kamikaze attack]] upon the ship.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t5/ticonderoga-iv.htm| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040315062041/http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t5/ticonderoga-iv.htm| url-status=dead| archive-date=March 15, 2004| title=Ticonderoga| publisher=[[Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]]}}</ref> His [[Kashrut|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.<ref name="JMorrison"/><ref name="nyt-obit"/>
After the war, he attained his law degree (LLB) in 1949 from [[Harvard Law School]],<ref name="carter"/> 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.<ref name="carter"/><ref name="nyt-obit"/>
==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]]<ref name="carter"/> and for another year at [[Louisiana State University]], where he advocated for blacks to be admitted to the university's law school.<ref name="GPassarella">{{cite news| url=http://www.law.com/jsp/pa/PubArticlePA.jsp?id=1202511754900| title=Former ABA President, Phila. Legend Jerome Shestack Dies at 88|author=Gina Passarella| newspaper=[[The Legal Intelligencer]]|date=August 22, 2011}}</ref> (One who was as a result of these efforts, [[Ernest Morial]], went on to become the first black [[Mayor of New Orleans]].<ref name="nyt-obit"/>)
He became first deputy city solicitor in Philadelphia in 1951 where he helped end segregation in swimming pools, bowling alleys, and other public places.<ref name="Gruberprize">{{cite web|url=http://www.gruberprizes.org/GruberPrizes/Justice_PressRelease.php?awardid=46| title=2008 Gruber Justice Prize Press Release|date=June 12, 2008|publisher=The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation}}</ref> 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.<ref name="JMorrison"/><ref name="MKlein">{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/1997-07-29/living/25549094_1_lawyers-human-rights-national-law-journal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906044046/http://articles.philly.com/1997-07-29/living/25549094_1_lawyers-human-rights-national-law-journal|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 6, 2012|title=High-flying Lawyer Jerome Shestack, The Philadelphian Who Next Week Will Take Over As President Of The American Bar Association, Has Come From Poverty To The Pinnacle. One Colleague Compares Him To Benjamin Franklin - But The Flattering Verdict Is Not Unanimous| date=July 29, 1997|author=Michael Klein|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]}}</ref> Shestack taught at the [[University of Pennsylvania Law School]], which awarded him an Honorary Fellowship and at [[Rutgers]]. He was an Honorary Fellow of [[Columbia Law School]] and had three honorary doctor of laws degrees.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://earlemacklaw.drexel.edu/about/board/BoardMembers/Jerome%20J%20Shestack |title=Jerome J. Shestack. Past President, American Bar Association. Partner, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis, LLP |publisher=Earl Mack School of Law at [[Drexel University]] }}{{dead link|date=April 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> From 1955 to 1991, he practiced with the law firm of [[Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP]]. He then moved to [[Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen]], chairing the [[litigation]] practice until 2009 when Wolf Block was dissolved.<ref name="ABAmedal">{{cite web|url=http://www.abanow.org/2006/06/jerome-j-shestack-%e2%80%98ambassador-for-human-rights-to-the-world%e2%80%99-receives-2006-aba-medal|title=Jerome J. Shestack, 'Ambassador For Human Rights to the World', Receives 2006 ABA Medal|publisher=[[American Bar Association]]|date=June 14, 2006|access-date=August 22, 2011|archive-date=March 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320111921/http://www.abanow.org/2006/06/jerome-j-shestack-%e2%80%98ambassador-for-human-rights-to-the-world%e2%80%99-receives-2006-aba-medal/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Later that year, he rejoined Schnader as a retired partner until his death in 2011. During much of his law practice career, he concentrated on involved [[commercial law]] and advocacy regarding [[appellate law]].<ref name="nyt-obit"/>
An active Democrat, Shestack worked for [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]] and wrote speeches for Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]], [[Sargent Shriver]], and Senator [[Ed Muskie]].<ref name="GPassarella"/> 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]],<ref name="carter"/> convened by President [[John F. Kennedy]] in 1963. He served on the board of directors of the [[Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund]].<ref name="carter"/> He wrote widely on human rights issues and other subjects.<ref name="ABAmedal"/> Throughout his attention to human rights, he focused upon cases that involved racial minorities, women, political prisoners, and indigents without legal representation.<ref name="nyt-obit"/>
His appointment as ambassador to the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]] occurred on December 10, 1979, when he replaced the resigning [[Edward Mezvinsky]].<ref name="carter"/> 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]].<ref name="nyt-obit">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/us/24shestack.html | title=Jerome Shestack, Diplomat and Bar Association Leader, Dies at 88 | author=Liptak, Adam | newspaper=[[The New York Times]] | date=August 24, 2011 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="carter"/><ref name="MKlein"/> 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.<ref name="carter"/> 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.<ref name="nyt-obit"/> 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.<ref name="MKlein"/>
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 that was before the ABA's political drift left.<ref name="MKlein"/> 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.<ref name="carter"/>
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]],<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.schnader.com/news/xprNewsDetail.aspx?xpST=NewsDetail&news=1026| title=Press Releases: Schnader Honors the Life and Legacy of Jerome J. Shestack| date=August 19, 2011| publisher=Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis| access-date=August 22, 2011| archive-date=August 28, 2011| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110828193630/http://www.schnader.com/news/xprNewsDetail.aspx?xpST=NewsDetail&news=1026| url-status=dead}}</ref> the [[American Jewish Congress]], the [[American Jewish Committee]], and served as president of Har Zion Temple, then Philadelphia's largest [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative Jewish]] congregation.<ref name="JMorrison">{{cite news|url=http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-19/news/29905479_1_human-rights-balkans-jerome-j-shestack|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120906044102/http://articles.philly.com/2011-08-19/news/29905479_1_human-rights-balkans-jerome-j-shestack|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 6, 2012|title=Jerome Shestack, 86, renowned legal, political & cultural figure|date=August 19, 2011|author= John F. Morrison|newspaper=[[Philadelphia Daily News]]}}</ref> He was a member of the [[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council]] and chairman of that institution's Committee on Conscience.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/bio/?content=shestack_jerome |title=Committee on Conscience – Jerome J. Shestack |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=August 27, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120719074944/http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/bio/?content=shestack_jerome |archive-date=July 19, 2012 }}</ref>
In Philadelphia, he was often known as "Mr. Marciarose", due to the fame of his wife.<ref name="MKlein"/> The couple had two children: Jennifer Shestack Doss,<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/30/style/weddings-jennifer-shestack-jeffrey-doss.html|title=Weddings; Jennifer Shestack, Jeffrey Doss|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=April 30, 2000}}</ref> a fragrance buyer for [[Bergdorf Goodman]], and motion picture producer [[Jonathan Shestack]],<ref name="JMorrison"/> as well as five grandchildren.<ref name="nyt-obit"/> The couple became active in [[Cure Autism Now]] after one of their grandchildren was discovered to be afflicted.<ref name="ABAmedal"/> His most prized personal possession was a book inscribed to him by [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name="MKlein"/>
In 2006, he received the [[American Bar Association Medal]],<ref name="ABAmedal"/> 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."<ref name="ABAmedal"/> In 2008 he was awarded the [[Gruber Prize for Justice]],<ref name="Gruberprize"/> and in 2009 the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights' Lloyd N. Cutler Lifetime Achievement Award.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/site/documents/files/Statement-Jerome-Shestack-8-19-11.pdf |title=Statement on the Passing of Jerome J. Shestack |date=August 19, 2011 |publisher=Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120112221435/http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/admin/site/documents/files/Statement-Jerome-Shestack-8-19-11.pdf |archive-date=January 12, 2012 }}</ref> Summing up his own career, Shestack once said, "There is no end of just causes to pursue."<ref name="MKlein"/>
Shestack died August 18, 2011, of [[kidney failure]] at his home in [[Center City, Philadelphia|Center City]].<ref name="ap-npr-obit">{{cite news | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=139811197 | title=Human Rights Advocate Jerome Shestack Dies | agency=[[Associated Press]] | publisher=[[NPR]] | date=August 19, 2011}}</ref>
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of State [[Hillary 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."<ref name="ap-npr-obit"/>
==Articles== * {{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K8oRZgvG-4kC&pg=PA29 | title=Role of the lawyer in Human Rights Issues. In: Global law in practice| author= Jerome J. Shestack| editor=Ross Harper| publisher=Kluwer Law International| location=The Hague| year= 1997| isbn= 90-411-0460-7| pages=29–43}} * {{cite web|url=http://www.princeton.edu/~bsimpson/Human%20Rights/articles/Shestack,%20Philosophical%20Foundation%20of%20Human%20Rights.htm |title=The Philosophic Foundations of Human Rights |author=Jerome J. Shestack |publisher=Human Rights Quarterly 20.2 |year=1998 |pages=201–234 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401231733/http://www.princeton.edu/~bsimpson/Human%20Rights/articles/Shestack%2C%20Philosophical%20Foundation%20of%20Human%20Rights.htm |archive-date=2012-04-01 }}
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
==External links== *[http://www.abanet.org/media/releases/news061406.html American Bar Association]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shestack, Jerome}} [[Category:20th-century American Jews]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]] [[Category:United States Navy officers]] [[Category:Harvard Law School alumni]] [[Category:Representatives of the United States to the United Nations Human Rights Council]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni]] [[Category:Presidents of the American Bar Association]] [[Category:University of Pennsylvania Law School faculty]] [[Category:People from Atlantic City, New Jersey]] [[Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia]] [[Category:American human rights activists]] [[Category:1923 births]] [[Category:2011 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:21st-century American Jews]] [[Category:Military personnel from Atlantic County, New Jersey]] [[Category:People associated with Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis]]