Jacob Blaustein (September 30, 1892 – November 15, 1970) was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and diplomat who founded the American Oil Company with his father Louis Blaustein.[1] Blaustein was an ardent supporter of human rights, the rights of Jewish people, and an advocate for multilateralism through the United Nations, serving as a United States delegate to the UN under five U.S. presidents.[2]
Early life
Jacob Blaustein was born on September 30, 1892, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Louis and Henrietta Blaustein.[3]
As a child, he helped his father deliver kerosene on a 270-gallon horse-drawn tank wagon. During childhood, he attended religious school at Baltimore's Temple Oheb Shalom.[4]
In 1910 when he was 18 years old, Blaustein and his father started the American Oil Company (AMOCO) in Baltimore, which was formally incorporated in 1922. At the time of incorporation, Blaustein held a 25% equity stake in the company to his father's 75%. One of their first employees was Joseph Harry Biden (1893–1941), paternal grandfather of President Joe Biden.[7][8]
Blaustein remained in his leadership role as president and board chairman of AMOCO until his death in 1970, when he was succeeded in the role by his son Dr. Morton Blaustein.[11]
Other business interests
In 1931, Blaustein established the American Trading And Production Corporation (ATAPCO)[12] which was formed to consolidate and diversify the family's business activities and investments.[5] These additional building holdings included manufacturing companies, tankers and oil wells, real estate holdings, Crown Central Petroleum, and the controlling shares of the Union Trust Company of Baltimore. By the 1950s, Blaustein was included on the Fortune and ForbesLists of Wealthiest Americans.[13]
Blaustein played a central role in the revitalization of downtown Baltimore through the development of the Blaustein Building in the 1960s.[14]
Public service
World War II
During World War II, Blaustein was president and Chairman of the Overseas News Agency and Jewish Telegraphic Agency which reported on antisemitic and other minority crimes taking place around the world.[15] During the war, Blaustein was also the acting chairman of the marketing committee of the U.S. Petroleum Administration for War, and a member of its committees on supplies, distribution, and joint use of facilities. Blaustein was a key member of the National Petroleum Council which served as a trusted advisor to the federal government on petroleum and gas matters of international significance during the war.[1]
After World War II, Blaustein advocated for reparations for the surviving victims of the Holocaust and helped to negotiate a $10 billion victim reparation plan with the Government of West Germany and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Blaustein led the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Delegation to the Paris Peace Conference where he advocated for the strengthening of human rights clauses in the treaties and the inclusion of guarantees to aid victims of persecution through reparations.[16]
Blaustein served as Senior Vice President of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany which was opened in New York City in order to help with individual claims. The organization functioned for a period of 15 years from 1951 to 1966. Through negotiations, a total sum of $845 million direct and indirect compensations was disbursed. In 1956, Blaustein testified regarding the organization's progress to the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.[17]
In 1960, Blaustein negotiated with the manufacturers of Krupp armaments to award compensatory damages for each slave laborer employed in their factories during the war.[2]
United Nations
Blaustein was an influential leader within the United Nations from its inception through the rest of his life. In March 1945, just one month before his death, President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with Blaustein and appointed him to represent the United States as a consultant delegate at the founding meetings and San Francisco Conference of the United Nations in San Francisco.[18] While he was at the San Francisco Conference, Blaustein helped to convince Soviet Foreign MinisterVyacheslav Molotov to accept the human rights articles of the UN Charter.[19]
Blaustein was an active advocate for the civil and religious rights of Jewish Americans and promoted tolerance among religious groups. Blaustein participated in a number of peacekeeping missions and negotiations on behalf of the United States government. Blaustein was an astute and trusted dealmaker and undertook diplomatic missions to Germany, Israel, North Africa, Morocco, Turkey, Greece, Poland, and South America on behalf of the United States.
Blaustein long advocated for the creation of the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,[23] a role that was created by the United Nations in 1993, over 23 years after his death and 30 years after he publicly called for the position in a December 1963 speech.[24][25][26]
His advocacy solidified the terms of U.S. and Israel relations through an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, ensuring that American Jews did not maintain allegiance to Israel, but instead would support the state through international cooperation, exchange, and education.[32][33][34]Abba Eban wrote that Blaustein was considered a "foremost interpreter of the concept of American-Israel friendship."
Blaustein played an influential role in Israel's admission to the United Nations, U.S. Export-Import Bank loans to Israel, and economic grants-in-aid for Israel from the United States.[35] After completing his term as AJC president, Blaustein was appointed as an honorary president from 1954 until his death in 1970.[36]
Federal service
Blaustein meeting with President Kennedy and former Senator Herbert Lehman in the Oval Office, c. 1962
President Truman appointed Blaustein to serve on his National Advisory Board on Mobilization Policy during the Korean War, which met in the Cabinet Room of the White House.[39] President Truman became a close personal friend of Blaustein,[40] often asking him to report directly to him after his foreign trips and advise him on international and domestic issues.[41][42] In the fall of 1945, President Truman made a personal visit to the Blaustein's Baltimore farm and estate, Alto Dale.[43]
In 1948, when President Truman was debating whether to seek election as president, he called in six people to advise him, with Mr. Blaustein among the selected advisors. Blaustein's long association with Truman continued when he served as a trustee of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.[3]
During the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Blaustein served as a member of the United States delegation to the UN. He continued in the role during the Kennedy Administration and Johnson Administration.[44]
President Kennedy appointed Blaustein to the Board of Governors of United Service Organizations and to the Federal Advisory Committee on International Business, met with him on multiple occasions to seek his advice on foreign and domestic policy matters, Middle East refugee crises, and invited him to multiple state dinners.[45][46][47][48][49]
Blaustein was a representative to the July 1963 White House Conference on Community Development.[50]
After the Assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, Blaustein was re-appointed to his federal posts by the new President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson also appointed Blaustein to serve as a member of the President's Commission on Marine Science, Engineering and Resources, and as a trustee of the Eleanor Roosevelt Memorial Foundation in 1964.[51][52]
Blaustein and his wife dined with President Richard Nixon at the White House in September 1969.[53]
Personal life
In 1925, Blaustein married Hilda Katz. They had three children, Morton, Barbara, and Elizabeth.[3]
In 1957, the Jacob & Hilda Blaustein Family Foundation was established to disburse much of Blaustein's wealth through a variety of charitable, educational, and civic causes, in addition to supporting Israeli democracy, international human rights initiatives, and American Jewish education.[19] The foundation serves as a benefactor of the Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and Center for Scientific Cooperation at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.[58]
In 1971, the American Jewish Committee established the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights which works to fight religious intolerance, end discrimination, and advocate for the rights of the Jewish community and other marginalized groups around the world.[59][60]
In 1999, Blaustein was named a "Marylander of the Century" by the Baltimore Sun.[61]
In a 2015 speech commemorating the 70th anniversary of the UN Charter, Speaker of the U.S. House of RepresentativesNancy Pelosi delivered remarks where she recalled meeting then-Senator John F. Kennedy at a dinner honoring Blaustein in the 1950s.[62]
^Naomi W. Cohen, Not Free to Desist: The American Jewish Committee, 1906-1966 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1972).
^“David Ben-Gurion and Jacob Blaustein Agree that American Jewry’s Prime Loyalty Is to the United States, August 23, 1950,” in The Jew in the American World: A Sourcebook, ed. Jacob R. Marcus (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996), 489-494.