Rahm Emanuel
Image by Getty Images
First known as the bare-knuckled wunderkind of Bill Clinton’s presidential staff, Rahm Emanuel launched his own political career with a 2002 congressional run from his native Chicago. Though on a fast track to become the first Jewish Speaker of the House of Representatives, he reluctantly returned to a second-banana role in 2009 as President Obama’s White House chief of staff.
This year, the 51-year-old Emanuel struck out on his own again, heading home to run for mayor of Chicago. Easily winning a six-way race with 55% of the vote, Emanuel was inaugurated May 16, becoming the Windy City’s first Jewish mayor. Unusual for an elected official, he’s used his bully pulpit repeatedly to articulate his personal Jewish credo. In June, he defended Obama’s Israel record on ABC News and in a Washington Post Op-Ed, adding that as “the son of an Israeli immigrant,” he had a “deep and abiding commitment” to Israel’s security. He also wrote, “…[I]f during the two years I served in the Obama White House the Palestinians had spent as much time working for peace as they did avoiding the table, the process would be much farther along.”
Reflecting on his own career in a September 20 keynote address at the annual meeting of Chicago’s Jewish United Fund, he said, “To be a Jew is to be a member of a community — and that’s not just our community… We have an obligation beyond our community to serve.”
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.
