KATZ, LABEL A.

KATZ, LABEL A. (1918–1975), U.S. attorney, realtor, and community leader. Katz, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, practiced law but concentrated on the home-construction industry and investment, and from 1951 was president of Label A. Katz Investment Co., Inc. He was president of the Communal Hebrew School of New Orleans (1943–48), and served in various district and national offices of the B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundation. He served as president of B'nai B'rith International for two terms (1959–65). At the age of 41, he had the distinction of being the youngest international president in the history of the organization. Katz was particularly concerned with Jewish education and with international affairs, notably the position of Soviet Jewry; in 1964 he helped organize the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, which encompassed 24 organizations. He also served as chairman of the Presidents' Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations (1960–61). In Louisiana he served on the New Orleans Mayor's Citizens' Committee on Housing Improvement (1953), as vice president of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, and as chairman of the board of Sophie Newcomb College of Tulane University. In his honor, B'nai B'rith International established the Label Katz Young Leadership Award, which honors members under the age of 40 who display distinguished leadership skills. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: E.E. Grusd, B'nai B'rith, Story of a Covenant (1966), index.