Edward Sanders, Carter Peace Adviser, Dies at 87
Edward Sanders, a national Jewish leader who played a key role in the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty as senior Middle East adviser to President Jimmy Carter, has died.
Sanders, who led the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, died Monday at his Los Angeles home following a protracted struggle with cancer. He was 87.
“Ed really provided substance to the Middle East peace process at Camp David and in overseas negotiations,” said Stuart Eizenstat, then Carter’s chief domestic policy adviser. “We also worked closely together in the White House on such issues as Soviet Jewry, Holocaust reparations, the Arab boycott and economic aid to Israel.”
Along with guiding AIPAC and the Presidents Conference, Sanders also served on the President’s Commission on the Holocaust, which Carter formed in 1978 to recommend a national memorial to the victims. He also led the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
In Los Angeles, he headed the Jewish Federation Council and United Jewish Fund in the 1970s, and most recently spearheaded the federation’s $20 million Campaign for the 21st Century. Sanders also served as chairman of the L.A. Urban League.
A dedicated, lifelong Democrat, Sanders took leadership roles in the Carter, Dukakis and Clinton presidential campaigns. Locally, he was a strong supporter of Tom Bradley, the first African-American mayor of Los Angeles.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
