2002 Leadership Award

Donald A. Kruse
U.S. Foreign Service, retired

Donald A. Kruse was the 2002 recipient of the Center for Public Justice Leadership Award. Mr. Kruse entered the American Foreign Service in 1957. Over the past forty years, he has completed assignments in Toronto, Luxembourg, Paris, Brussels, the Sinai, Naples, London, and Jerusalem, as well as at the State Department in Washington, DC.

In Jerusalem, he served as American Counsel for four years. Since his retirement from the U.S. Foreign Service in 1989, Mr. Kruse has been a consultant with the U.S. State Department. He has also served on the boards of many organizations concerned with the problems of the Middle East, including the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), Partners for Peace, Pilgrims of Ibillin, Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding (EMEU), and HCEF.

Mr. Kruse is the author of numerous articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict and on the subject of the Palestinian people and has led annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem. He is a recipient of the Department of State Superior Honor Award (1973, 1981), the Distinguished Service to Society Award from Wheaton College (1987), the United States Navy Superior Public Service Award (1988), and the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation Award (2000).

His Leadership Award remarks, entitled "Some Diplomatic Observations on the Middle East," are available for download (PDF, 7 pages). 

The Center also recognized Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding, an informal fellowship of North American evangelical Christians committed to dialogue which seeks mutual understanding, respect, and friendship between Middle Eastern and Western Christians.