Reverend Dr. L. Humphrey Walz

The Rev. Dr. L. Humphrey Walz is chairman of the American Educational Trust, which publishes the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He also is the publication's religion editor. The Associate Executive, H.R. (Honorably Retired) of the Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast, he holds a B.A. and D.D. from Amherst College, where he was an Addison Brown Scholar, an M.A. from Oxford University, Mansfield College, on a John Woodruff Simpson Fellowship and an S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary, New York.

Between 1934 and 1963, Dr. Walz held pastorates in Oceanside, NY, two in New York City, and in Crown Point, Indiana. From 1963 to 1972 he was successively Minister of Public Relations and Associate Executive of the Synod of New York (state) as it merged with New England and New Jersey to form the Synod of the Northeast, where he served for a further four years as a consultant.

He was twice freed briefly to be a consultant (he rejects the official designation, "expert") on refugee matters to OMGUS (the Defense Department's Office of Military Government during the Allied occupation of Germany) in 1949 and to HICOG (the State Department's High Commissioner for Germany) in 1950. In the winter of the 1956-7 Soviet invasion of Hungary and the British/French/Israeli invasion of Sinai/Suez, he made on-the-ground reports for the World Council of Churches from Vienna, Cairo and Port Said. Many of his subsequent visits to the Middle East, North Africa and the borders of the Yugoslavia have been in connection with church-related refugee developments.

His writings on these and other themes have appeared in many religious and secular periodicals. He established The Link for Americans for Middle East Understanding in 1968, was its editor for five years and is still on its board. He has also been the editor of various judicatory newsletters and magazines for his denomination.

Recognition has come in the form of the (British) King's Medal for Service in the Cause of Freedom and the Presbytery of New York City's Distinguished Serice Award in 1948, the National Religious Publicity Council's Award for Merit for 1949, the Midwest Brotherhood Award (in the form of the rare 1948 edition of the 10-volume Universal Jewish Encyclopedia) of the American Council for Judaism in 1961, the Janesville, Wisconsin, YWCA Annual Peace Award for 1988, the Palestine Human Rights Campaign's 1987 Distinguished Leadership Award, the American-Arab Affairs Council's 1990 plaque for "a lifetime commitment to inter-religious tolerance and understanding, in service to the cause of justice and peace in the Middle East among Christians, Muslims and Jews," and the American Muslim Council's 1992 plaque "in recognition of his lifetime contribution to interfaith dialogue, human rights, justice and peace." He was cited in 1993 by the (Protestant/Roman Catholic/Unitarian) Churches for Middle East Peace as among the Presbyterians who "have dedicated their lives to seeking a just peace."