By Dave Schechter
(October 12, 2021 / Atlanta Jewish Times) Atlanta attorney David Schoen has been elected chairman of the Zionist Organization of America, a 124-year-old group known for its blunt — and unapologetic — support of Israel.
Schoen, 62, will serve a three-year term guiding the organization on whose board he has served for 20 years. He helped found ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice and serves on its advisory board.
“It’s a whole new chapter for me,” Schoen told the AJT.
In a statement, ZOA national president, Morton Klein, said of Schoen: “His life revolves around family, Judaism, Israel, and the law. His dynamism, energy, knowledge, intellect, relationships in the legal, Jewish, political and Israel worlds, and his great work ethic will help propel ZOA to new heights.”
Established in 1897, ZOA was one of the early Zionist organizations in the United States. The organization is listed as a tax-exempt nonprofit under the Internal Revenue Service code.
ZOA has been praised by supporters and criticized by detractors for its sometimes pugnacious public stance. “ZOA has highlighted it when other Jewish groups haven’t been strong enough in their advocacy or pure enough in their advocacy for Israel,” Schoen said. “They’re always pigeon-holed as a right wing organization. I don’t like those labels anyway. They call the facts as they see them, even if they’re controversial.”
That is an approach that Schoen understands. “I’m disappointed in one factor for myself and my family,” Schoen said when asked about his role in the February 2021 second impeachment trial of then-President Donald J. Trump. Schoen voiced dismay that much of the reporting of his election as ZOA chairman reduced his 36-year legal career to his representation of Trump and his conversations with Jeffrey Epstein before the latter’s death in federal custody in New York while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Though he lives in Atlanta, Schoen’s law practice, centered on civil rights and federal criminal defense cases, is based in Montgomery, Ala., and New York City. He received his Juris Doctor from the Boston College School of Law and a Master of Laws from the Columbia University Law School.
