Aaron Keyak, former Biden Jewish engagement director, appointed as deputy antisemitism envoy
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Jacob Kornbluh November 18, 2021
Aaron Keyak, who served as Jewish outreach director during President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, has been appointed as the State Department’s deputy envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
The appointment comes amid a political fight over the Biden Administration’s pick for the top global antisemitism role. Deborah E. Lipstadt, the renowned Holocaust historian, was nominated as antisemitism envoy in July, but Republicans have delayed her confirmation over critical tweets she wrote about Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a member of the foreign relations committee. A number of Jewish groups have called on the Senate to speed up Lipstadt’s confirmation.
The deputy role does not require Senate confirmation, so Keyak, 36, will serve as the acting envoy on antisemitism until Lipstadt is either confirmed or rejected.
Keyak, who worked on the Biden-Harris transition team after the 2020 election, was dubbed the Orthodox political wunderkind by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He co-founded Bluelight Strategies, a Washington consulting and public-relations firm, with longtime Democratic strategist Steve Rabinowitz in 2014 after a short stint as interim executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council.
In 2012, he spearheaded “The Hub,” a Jewish outreach team that supported former President Barack Obama’s reelection. Keyak previously served as communications director in the offices of Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York and former Rep. Steve Rothman of New Jersey.
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, described Keyak as a person with “superior ethics and values, who lives Jewishly every day of his life and works to make the world a better place.” Daroff, who has had a close relationship with Keyak for over two decades, said he is an “excellent choice” for the job.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
