The Israeli peace-for-peace NGO Mattot Arim expresses its deep condolences on the passing of Ambassador Richard Schifter, age 97, who was one of the State Department's top human rights officials, represented the U.S. at key United Nations bodies, and courageously and cleverly fought institutional anti-Israeli bigotry at the UN. Schifter was a Holocaust era survivor, a graduate of Yale Law School and of the US military, who represented the U.S. at the UN Commission on Human Rights, served as the US Deputy Representative to the Security Council and as U.S. Assistant Secretary for Human Rights from 1985 to 1992, who spoke truth to power, on behalf of the Jewish people as well as for political prisoners in Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe, and in China. His career spanned 70 years and he chaired the American Jewish International Relations Institute.
