Oral history interview with Jeri Laber, 2016

Biographical Note

Jeri Laber was born and raised in New York City. She completed her undergraduate work at New York University and her graduate work at Columbia University, where she worked simultaneously at the Russian Institute and in the Department of Slavic Languages. After graduating from the Russian Institute in 1954, she became one of the founders of Helsinki Watch, which later became the Human Rights Watch. She was executive director there from 1979 to 1995. In the course of her human rights work, Laber made many fact-finding trips to the countries of the former Soviet Union. She has been awarded the Order of Merit by Vaclav Havel on behalf of the Czech Republic, and has also been a recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship

Scope and Contents

Jeri Laber begins the interview discussing her childhood and early history. Her Russian heritage led to an interest in Russian culture, especially Russian literature. She discusses her experience as a student of the Harriman Institute (at the time called the Russian Institute) during the McCarthy era and of traveling in the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Laber then discusses her colleagues at the Harriman Institute and her experiences as a woman in academia. The first session of the interview ends with her introduction to the human rights field. In the second session, Laber discusses her experiences in the field of human rights and the growth of the field. She describes the early years of the Helsinki Watch and its amalgamation into the Human Rights Watch under her directorship. Laber also describes her experience with fact-finding missions, particularly to Czechoslovakia. Laber concludes by describing her efforts to stay in touch with the Harriman Institute across the years. She discusses the integration of human rights studies into the Institute's work and curriculum

Subjects

• Bertin-Mahieux, Caitlin, interviewer.
• Executives--Interviews.
• Harriman Institute.
• Human Rights Watch (Organization)
• Human rights.
• Interviews.
• Laber, Jeri--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Russia (Federation)--Study and teaching.
• Soviet Union--Relations--United States.
• Soviet Union--Study and teaching.
• United States--Relations--Soviet Union
• Women in higher education.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2016