Naomi Levine, who as executive director of the American Jewish Congress in the 1970s was the first woman to lead a major Jewish advocacy organization, and who later became instrumental in New York University’s expansion into a top-tier institution, died Jan. 14 at her home in West Palm Beach, FL. She was 97.

Ms. Levine joined the American Jewish Congress in the 1950s as a lawyer on its Commission on Law and Social Action. Often in partnership with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, she wrote briefs in decisive Supreme Court cases, including Brown v. Board of Education, which dismantled segregation in public schools, and Sweatt v. Painter, which successfully challenged the “separate but equal” doctrine established by Plessy v. Ferguson.

She served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress from 1972 to 1978, when she accepted a position at NYU. A decade-long $1 billion fundraising campaign begun in 1985 was hailed as one of the most ambitious ever in higher education. Over two decades, she raised more than $2 billion for the university and as much as $300 million a year toward the end of her tenure in 2001.