Stuart E. Eizenstat was born on January 15, 1943, in Chicago and raised in Atlanta; he was an all-city and honorable-mention All-America basketball player in high school.

He served as his point man in the drafting of the 1976 party platform and headed the issues operations of Carter's campaign.

[6] He has served as the United States Ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996 and as co-chairman of the European-American Business Council (EABC).

For his work he has received the Courage and Conscience Award from the Government of Israel, the Knight Commander's Cross (Badge and Star) of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Legion of Honor from the Government of France, and the International Advocate for Peace Award from the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution.

[13] Eizenstat acted on many occasions as a negotiator to gain payments by the current German government to Holocaust survivors, or their heirs.

[14] He also negotiated major agreements with the Swiss, Austrian, French, and other European governments, concerning slave and forced labor, which included life insurance policy payments to heirs of victims of the Holocaust; and restitution of Holocaust victim bank account assets, as well as of artworks which had been looted by the Nazis to their original owners, or their heirs.

[citation needed] In 2018, he helped negotiate a symbolic payment of 2,500 euros to those who had survived the Holocaust by having escaped it through the Kindertransport program, which had been assisted by the British government.

Eizenstat wrote about his restitution efforts in his book Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2009).

In 2013 Eizenstat was appointed "Special Advisor for Holocaust Issues" to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.