Madeleine Kunin

When President Clinton appointed Madeleine Kunin as Ambassador to Switzerland in 1996, he chose a woman with a very special relationship to the country. Born into a Jewish family in Zurich, she fled Switzerland as a child to escape the ominous threat of a Nazi invasion. In her post as Ambassador, Kunin was faced with defusing the political time bomb that has arisen from the indisputable evidence that Swiss banks and security houses were the final destinations of millions of dollars stolen by the Nazis from their Jewish victims.

Kunin came to this task with a proven and distinguished record of public service. The first female governor in the history of the state of Vermont, she served three terms there before moving on to the national political scene. In 1994, she was appointed Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education where she was instrumental in enacting President Clinton’s educational reform program.

Kunin is part of the new wave of women in the top ranks of government, and she’s recruiting: “Women will not have all the answers, but they are sure to inject new talent, ideas, and optimism into a political system desperately in need of all three.” Detailing her own experiences in the corridors of power in her latest book Pearls, Politics & Power, Kunin also calls on a long list of women in politics to discuss the problems they’ve overcome, the issues that have driven them and the reasons that gender does make a difference.

Drawing from Pearls, Politics & Power, her extensive national and international leadership and her acclaimed autobiography, Living a Political Life, Ambassador Kunin shares her unique journey through the political arena in a captivating program. She also illuminates the dark World War II period in Switzerland’s history, examining how events that took place nearly half a century ago continue to play a crucial role today. In this challenging and riviting lecture Kunin discusses why it was necessary–and ultimately beneficial–for Switzerland to confront its past, and outlines how the nation has taken steps to rectify its unjust actions; including the creation of a historic multi-billion dollar solidarity fund to aid Holocaust victims and their families.