Leonard P. Zakim - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

Zakim was born in Clifton, NJ and became interested in civil rights and activism after he encountered anti-semitism as a boy. He earned his undergraduate degree at American University in Washington, DC and then graduated from the New England School of Law in 1978. He settled in the Boston area after law school and lived there until the end of his life. In 1978 he worked as the southeast Massachusetts field director for the reelection campaign of then Mass. Governor Michael Dukakis. Paid $50 a week to work on the ultimately unsuccessful campaign, this experience nevertheless formed the cornerstone of his later political involvement. "The campaign was the beginning of an association with Dukakis and his wife, Kitty, that would bring Mr. Zakim to the policy-making level of the national Democratic Party, a standing he retained after Dukakis's political career faded," the Boston Globe wrote in its obituary on Zakim.

In 1979 he was hired by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as its New England Civil Rights director and in 1984 he was named New England director for the organization.

He later married his wife Joyce and had three children, Josh, Deena and Shari.