New York, NY, May 14, 2014 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presented Deputy Secretary of State William J. Burns with its Distinguished Statesman Award on April 28, 2014 as part of its National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. Deputy Secretary Burns received the award in recognition of his extraordinary diplomatic career and commitment to the values ADL holds dear.
During the ceremony, ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said that Deputy Secretary Burns “has led with the clarity of his conviction about what the U.S. must do to be a force for good in the world…Bill has earned the respect and admiration of his colleagues and his counterparts around the world while serving ten secretaries of state. He will go down in history as one of America’s finest diplomats, and he will go down in ADL’s history as a melitz yosher – an advocate on high with a pure heart and just convictions.”
“I’m extraordinarily proud to be a career American diplomat, proud of the people I serve with, and proud of the country we serve,” Deputy Secretary Burns said upon accepting the award. “I’m truly honored to receive this award, and it’s a special honor to receive it from you.”
Past recipients of the ADL Distinguished Statesman Award include Italian President Giorgio Napolitano; former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski; Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi; Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon; French President Jacques Chirac; Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis; Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz; Ambassador Madeleine Albright; German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel; and Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis.