The White House is set to name Matt Nosanchuk, a lawyer who has been prominent in advancing the Obama administration’s gay rights policies, as its new full-time Jewish liaison. Nosanchuk will replace Zach Kelly, who has held the job part time since the last full-time liaison to the Jewish community, Jarrod Bernstein, left for the…
President Barack Obama will mark Passover with a White House Seder on Monday, part of a personal tradition he began during his 2008 presidential campaign, a spokesman said. Obama will sit down with family and friends for the dinner celebrating the first night of Passover, when Jews around the world retell the story of liberation…
Just before the doors of the Old Family Dining Room swing open to welcome Elijah to the White House Seder, Dr. Eric Whitaker, a friend of President Obama, reads aloud the Emancipation Proclamation. Last week, as I researched the Obama Seder (the only Seder hosted by a sitting President), I was struck by several things,…
This could sound like yet another bad-taste Oscar night joke, but turns out that the U.S. economy is run by Jews. Well, at least the federal government’s top advisers. On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Jack Lew, an Orthodox Jew, as Treasury Secretary. He will joined by Gene Sperling, director of the National…
Chuck Hagel’s cautious testimony may not have won converts during his contentious nomination hearing for U.S. defense secretary, but it appeared on Friday not to have cost support he will need to be confirmed as the new Pentagon chief. Republicans hammered Hagel when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, with some…
Was it just another slip of the tongue by Vice President Joe Biden, or a preview of the next presidential campaign in 2016? Hours before he and President Barack Obama were due to be sworn in for their second four-year terms, Biden told supporters at the Iowa State Society inauguration ball late Saturday: “I’m proud…
President Barack Obama on Monday will announce the nominations of Republican Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan as the new CIA director, a senior administration official said. The choice of Hagel, a maverick former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam veteran, had been widely tipped to replace Leon…
From his lonely position as an early Republican critic of the Iraq war, former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel sometimes lectured his more timid Senate colleagues. “If you wanted a safe job, go sell shoes,” he told them. Now Democratic President Barack Obama, putting together his team for his second term, is poised to chose the…
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