Eli Evans

Eli Evans was born and grew up in Durham, N.C. and graduated from the University of North Carolina. After a tour of duty in U.S Navy in the far east and graduation from Yale Law School, he served in the White House as a speech writer for President Lyndon Johnson. He has been a senior executive with the Carnegie Corporation of New York and served as the first president of the Charles H. Revson Foundation from 1977 to 2003 and is currently president emeritus. Under his leadership, the foundation launched such creative ventures as the PBS series Heritage: Civilization and the Jews (broadcast in 19 countries including Russia, and to 50 million viewers in the US); Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli Sesame Street and its American version Shalom Sesame; and Bill Moyers’ Genesis:A Living Conversation. A well known Southern historian, Mr. Evans is the author of three books: The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South; Judah P. Benjamin: the Jewish Confederate; and The Lonely Days Were Sundays:Reflections of a Jewish Southerner. Looking back at his literary career, Abba Eban, the renowned scholar and Israeli diplomat said “the Jews of the South have found their poet Laureate.” When inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001, he was honored “for his dual contribution to American letters and as a philanthropist of uncommon originality and leadership.” He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the Covenant Foundation.