The Board of Directors of the Orthodox Union (OU) has unanimously appointed Allen I. Fagin, a well-known attorney and former chairman of Proskauer Rose, LLP, one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, to the position of executive vice president and chief professional officer. Mr. Fagin assumed his new role immediately.
Fagin is a graduate of Yeshivat Ramaz in New York City; Columbia College (1971); Harvard Law School and the JFK School of Government at Harvard, where he received a JD and a master’s degree in public policy, both in 1975. He then served as a law clerk to the Hon. Robert L. Carter, United States District Judge in the Southern District of New York.
Fagin served as Proskauer’s chairman from 2005-2011. During that time, the firm grew to over 750 lawyers and approximately 1,500 employees, and opened offices in London, Sao Paulo, Chicago, and Hong Kong. Fagin retired from Proskauer at the end of 2013 in order to devote himself, as he puts it, “with far greater intensity, to communal activity.”
Rabbi Steven Weil, who preceded Fagin as executive vice president, said, “Having had Allen as a mentor and guide in his role as a lay leader, I believe having him lead us professionally represents the greatest of all possibilities for the OU.”
Rabbi Weil will now take up a senior position in institutional advancement and community engagement.
“I am honored to stand at the professional helm of an organization that impacts Jewish life in so many ways, both in the United States and around the globe,” Fagin said after greeting members of the OU staff at its Lower Manhattan headquarters. “My goal is to enable an extraordinary group of professionals to serve our community with even greater resources and focus.”
As an OU lay leader Fagin served as chairman of the Orthodox Union’s Youth Commission, which supervises the work of NCSY, the OU’s famed international youth movement. Prior to that he served as chairman of the Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (JLIC), which places an educator couple on 16 campuses across the United States and Canada to encourage and facilitate the observance, commitment, and education of Orthodox students, while at the same time opening up Torah knowledge to the general Jewish student community.
Fagin is married to Judith, the former head of school at Yeshivat Ramaz, who currently serves as an educational advisor to Magen David Yeshiva. Allen and Judy have two sons and daughters-in-law; both couples reside in Woodmere, in the Five Towns of Long Island. Eleven of their 12 grandchildren attend yeshivot in the Five Towns; their oldest grandson is currently studying in Israel.
