Elan Steinberg was an Israeli-born head of

World Jewish Congress The World Jewish Congress (WJC) was founded in Geneva, Switzerland in August 1936 as an international federation of Jewish communities and organizations. According to its mission statement, the World Jewish Congress' main purpose is to act as ...

Early life and career

Elan Steinberg was born to a

Polish Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

family in

Rishon LeZion Rishon LeZion ( he, רִאשׁוֹן לְצִיּוֹן , ''lit.'' First to Zion, Arabic: راشون لتسيون) is a city in Israel, located along the central Israeli coastal plain south of Tel Aviv. It is part of the Gush Dan metropolitan ar ...

, Israel, in 1952. When he was two years old, his family emigrated to the United States. He studied at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

and

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

. Later, he joined City University of New York as a faculty member. In 1974, he joined World Jewish Congress. When he left the congress in 2004, he was the executive director. Steinberg also served as a vice president of the

American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants, also known as the American Gathering, is the largest organization of Holocaust survivors in North America. It functions as an umbrella organization for survivor resources, ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinberg, Elan 1952 births 2012 deaths American people of Polish-Jewish descent Israeli emigrants to the United States Brooklyn College alumni City University of New York alumni People from Rishon LeZion City University of New York faculty