Jacob Stein, President Reagan’s liaison with the Jewish community, is resigning as of January 31, the White House has announced. Stein, who worked out of the Office of Public Liaison, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that his resignation was entirely for personal reasons.
He said he wants to return to the real estate business in which he was engaged for 35 years and to spend more time with his family. He said that no discussions have been held yet on his successor.
Before returning to private life, the 65-year-old former Long Island resident will serve as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He said he would spend about seven weeks there.
ROLE IN THE WHITE HOUSE
Stein was named to the Reagan White House after the Administration first denied that it would have a special liaison to the Jewish community or other ethnic groups such as the Carter Administration had. Stein was a member of the Coalition for Reagan Bush, a group of Jewish Republicans who supported Reagan’s election in 1980.
As White House liaison, he represented the Administration at various Jewish meetings and participated in the meetings that Jewish groups such as the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations had with Reagan and other Administration officials.
Stein is a former chairman of the Presidents Conference and former president of the United Synagogue of America, the congregational organization of Conservative Judaism. He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the World Jewish Congress.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
