Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

The Exodus

Rahm Emanuel is leaving, David Axelrod might be on his way out, Larry Summers will be gone by the fall, and Peter Orszag has already moved on.

Are there any Jews left in the White House?

The latest wave of departures of senior White House advisers seems to have taken its toll on the Jewish presence in top administration positions.

The most visible Jewish official, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, decided to part with President Obama and seek election as the mayor of his hometown of Chicago next year. David Axelrod, senior adviser to the president who’s been with Obama since their Chicago days, is reportedly also planning to leave this fall, although he will not be going far. Axelrod will focus on preparing Obama’s strategy for the 2012 presidential elections.

And over at the president’s economic team, Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council, announced he would depart by the end of the year and return to Harvard.

Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, left the White House in the end of June, but at least in terms of Jewish head count that won’t make a difference, since his replacement, State Department’s Jacob Lew, is also a member of the tribe.

Having said that, there is still no shortage of Jewish officials in top White House positions, from senior adviser Dennis Ross and Middle East director Dan Shapiro at the National Security Council, to Jared Bernstein in the office of Vice President Joe Biden, and plenty of lower-level aides as well.

Not to worry, Obama’s seder table will not remain empty.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.