Bush pal lauded for leadership of Holocaust museum

By Eric Fingerhut · December 21, 2008

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As a close friend of George W. Bush and a top Republican Party fund-raiser, Fred Zeidman knew that his appointment as chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council nearly seven years ago looked like a gift from the new president to a political crony.

So Zeidman stood up at his first meeting and told the board, “There are no elephants on my tie. This is a totally nonpartisan position. We are here for the future of this museum and we need to keep politics out of the museum.”

A group of Democratic women on the board, including law professor and Democratic pundit Susan Estrich, encouraged others to give Zeidman, a Houston-area businessman and local Jewish communal leader, a chance.

“I think at the outset there was concern that President Bush was appointing his best Jewish friend, a major supporter and donor, rather than a ‘Holocaust person,’ ” Estrich wrote in a recent e-mail to JTA, “but I always thought the fact that the museum was the job that Fred — who could have had his choice of plum spots in the administration — wanted was a clear sign of his commitment, and his values.”

“I think the museum today is stronger because of his leadership,” she added.

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