HOFFMAN, PHILIP E.

HOFFMAN, PHILIP E. (1908–1993), U.S. attorney, business executive, and Jewish leader. Hoffman was born in New York and graduated from Yale Law School in 1932, where he was a member of the editorial board of the Yale Law Review. During World War ii he served as assistant general counsel of the War Production Board in Washington, d.c. (1942–45). Subsequently he was appointed hearing commissioner of the National Production Authority (1950–52) and chairman of the Jewelry Industrial Coordination Commission (1954–57). Hoffman was a partner in the law firm of Hoffman and Tuck and chairman of the diversified U.S. Realty and Investment Co. in Newark, New Jersey.

He began his career in Jewish affairs by serving as the youngest chairman of the United Jewish Appeal in Essex County, n.j. He became president of the Essex County Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, and then chairman of the Executive Board, Board of Governors, and Domestic Affairs Committee, and in 1968 was elected president. In this capacity, he traveled extensively to the countries of Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and the Middle East, including numerous trips to Israel. In 1964 he met with Pope Paul vi to discuss Jewish-Catholic relations, and in 1966 he met with Catholic scholars in Europe to discuss the removal of prejudiced references to Jews from religious textbooks. In 1972 President Nixon appointed Hoffman to the post of U.S. representative to the Commission on Human Rights of the United Nations. He was the recipient of numerous human relations awards.

[Julian J. Landau]