September 15, 1999

Richard B. Stone, the Wilbur H. Friedman Professor of Tax Law at the Columbia University School of Law, will be honored with the National Distinguished Leadership Award at the Orthodox Union’s Institute for Public Affairs (IPA) Dinner to be held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City on Columbus Day, Monday, October 11, 1999. The OU will also honor United States Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) with the National Distinguished Statesman Award. New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley will be the keynote speaker.

The Institute for Public Affairs is the research and advocacy arm of the Orthodox Union. Proceeds from the event will benefit the IPA’s Washington Internship Program, which grooms the top echelons of college students to become future leaders of the American Jewish community.

OU Vice President and Chairman of the IPA, Professor Stone has been a member of the Columbia University School of Law faculty since 1974. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Professor Stone began his career as a lawyer at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Covington and Burling. He then served for four years as Assistant Solicitor General of the United States. By the age of thirty, Professor Stone had argued a dozen cases in the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Stone’s involvement in Jewish public life began in the early 1970s when he co-founded the Jewish Center for Policy Studies, an organization that lobbied on behalf of Soviet Jewry. He has served on the Boards of many Jewish organizations including the National Society for Jewish Day Schools (Torah U’Mesorah), the New York Jewish Community Relations Council, the New York Metropolitan Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty and the Jewish Council on Law and Public Affairs. Professor Stone has been actively involved in the work of the OU’s Institute for Public Affairs for more than 10 years and has served as vice president of the OU and chairman of the IPA since 1994.

"Throughout his illustrious career, Richard Stone has served as a leader in the public policy arena. We are indeed fortunate that he has chosen to use his brilliant legal mind and his passion for political activism to strengthen the Jewish community," said Dr. Mandell I. Ganchrow, president of the Orthodox Union, and founder of the IPA’s Washington Internship Program.

"In his professional life, Richard serves as a mentor for budding young lawyers; And, through his outstanding leadership of the IPA, he also serves as an inspiration for the next generation of leaders who will assume the mantle of responsibility for Jewish communal service," added David Luchins, a co-chairman of the dinner, professor of political science at Touro College and senior advisor to Senator Moynihan.

Established in 1983, the IPA was created to represent and mobilize the world’s largest Orthodox Jewish community. Representing nearly 1,000 synagogues across the country, the IPA works to protect Jewish interests and freedoms by providing government officials with informative policy briefings, advocating legislative and regulatory initiatives and coordinating its constituency’s grass-roots political activities.

The Orthodox Union, celebrating 100 years of service to the Jewish community of America and beyond, is the world leader in youth work, advocacy for the disabled, synagogue services, adult education and political action. Its kosher supervision label, the OU, is the world’s most recognized kosher symbol and can be found on over 200,000 products in 62 countries around the globe.

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Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America Department of Public Relations Sharyn Perlman, Director Main Office: 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 Phone: 212-613-8321 Fax: 212-564-9058 E-mail: media@ou.org

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