Rabb, Maxwell Milton
RABB, MAXWELL MILTON
RABB, MAXWELL MILTON (1910–2002), U.S. attorney, government official, and Jewish community leader. Rabb, who was born in Boston, graduated from Harvard Law School and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1935. He subsequently became an administrative assistant to Senators Henry Cabot Lodge (1937–43) and Sinclair Weeks (1944). After naval service, Rabb became a legal and legislative consultant to Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal in 1946. He later served as associate counsel to President Dwight Eisenhower (1953–54), and was secretary to Eisenhower's cabinet from 1954 to 1958. Rabb was sent as chairman of the U.S. delegation to the tenth session of unesco in Paris in 1958, later serving on the executive committee of the United States Committee for UNESCO (1959–60). President Johnson appointed Rabb to the Commission on Income Maintenance Programs (the Heineman Commission on welfare and related programs, 1968–70). He was a trustee of the American Health Foundation (1969–74) and served on the Council of Foreign Relations (1978). Between 1981 and 1989 he was American ambassador to Italy.
Among other posts, Rabb was a director of several corporations and a member of the board of directors of the naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He also served as president of the United States Committee for Refugees, a private group organized in 1958 that dealt with refugee resettlement and immigration. Active in Jewish community affairs, Rabb was chairman of the government division of the uja (1953–57), a member of the board of governors of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and vice chairman of the New York executive committee of the Anti-Defamation League, among many other posts. Rabb was a member of the New York law firm of Stroock, Stroock and Lavan from 1958.
John Cabot University established the Maxwell Rabb Scholarship in honor of Rabb, who was the longest-serving American ambassador to Italy. The partial-tuition scholarship is granted to a degree-seeking student from the U.S. or Italy who demonstrates a commitment to community service and/or civic involvement.
[Rohan Saxena and
Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]