Madeleine Albright, first female US secretary of state, dies of cancer at age 84
Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the position of U.S. Secretary of State, has died of cancer at the age of 84.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat at the Wye River Conference Center during the Wye River Memorandum talks, Oct. 16, 1998. Credit: U.S. Government, Department of Defense via Wikimedia Commons.
A statement posted on Twitter said that Albright was “surrounded by family and friends” and that she was “a loving mother, grandmother, sister and friend,” as well as a “tireless champion of democracy and human rights.”
Born Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague—then Czechoslovakia in 1937—she came to the United States as a refugee in 1948. She eventually rose to the heights of American foreign policymaking as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, and secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton.
However, it was not until after she became secretary of state that she learned that her family was Jewish, and her parents had converted to Roman Catholicism during World War II. She also discovered that 26 family members, including three grandparents, were murdered in the Holocaust.
“The impact that she has had on this building is felt every single day in just about every single corridor,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said of Albright.
In her positions within the Clinton administration, Albright played a key role in major foreign policy decisions, from the Rwandan genocide to the conflict in the Balkans. As the U.S.’s top diplomat, she made little progress in implementing the 1993 Oslo Accords that established self-rule for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. However, she played a leading role with the Wye Accords in 1998 that turned over control of roughly 40 percent of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria, to the Palestinians. She also spearheaded a failed effort to negotiate a 2000 peace deal between Israel and Syria.
In a statement, officials of the Democratic Majority for Israel mourned her passing, saying they were “heartbroken.”
“As our nation’s top diplomat, she broke barriers and fought for human rights at home and abroad,” said DMFI co-chairs Ann Lewis and Todd Richman, and president and CEO Mark Mellman.
“A refugee from Nazi Germany and Soviet communism, she was tough, courageous and a clear-speaking believer in democracy. Her moral leadership and courage will be an inspiration for generations to come,” they continued. “We’re indebted to her for her service to America.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also expressed his condolences on her passing.
“Saddened by the passing of Secretary Madeleine Albright, a groundbreaking diplomat, feminist icon and outstanding leader, whom I always admired. Our last correspondence was when she graciously congratulated me on my election. She was a true friend of Israel and we will miss her.”
Reacting to the passing of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said: “It is with sorrow that we learn of the passing of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, an outspoken champion of peace and international human rights.
“Secretary Albright, who immigrated with her family to the United States in 1948 after a Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, paved the way for women in high-ranking positions in U.S. politics, serving as our country’s permanent representative to the United Nations and its first female secretary of state.
“As America’s top diplomat, she was a fierce advocate of the two-state solution and took an unambiguous stand against terrorism. ‘It can never be justified,’ she said. ‘It is the instrument of cowards. It kills the innocent not by accident, but by design. And its design in the Middle East is to murder the peace process by shredding security and destroying the hope for peace.’
“She was also a stalwart ally in the international efforts on behalf of Holocaust survivors. Addressing the opening ceremony of the December 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets, she declared, ‘Our goal must be justice, even though justice in this searing context is a highly relative term. We know well our inability to provide true justice to Holocaust victims. We cannot restore life nor rewrite history. But we can make the ledger slightly less out of balance by devoting our time, energy and resources to the search for answers, the return of property and the payment of just claims.’
“On behalf of the more than 100 Jewish communities affiliated with the World Jewish Congress, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the entire Albright family. May her memory be for a blessing and may she continue to inspire future generations.”
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog tweeted: “Saddened by the passing of Secretary Madeleine Albright, a groundbreaking diplomat, feminist icon and outstanding leader, whom I always admired. Our last correspondence was when she graciously congratulated me on my election. She was a true friend of Israel and we will miss her.”
JNS/J-Wire
