MARKETPLACE SHLOMO MAITAL Biden’s Jewish A-Team US PRESIDENT Joe Biden has appoint- • Avril Haines, director of national intelli- ed a strong, experienced team for his new gence. She was deputy director of the CIA un- administration. Among them are a minyan der Obama, the first woman to hold this job. and a half of Jews. Indeed, I wonder if Her mother was a well-known Jewish painter, there has ever been a more Jewish US ad- Adrian Rappin (Rappaport) and Haines iden- ministration – and as well, a full minyan of tifies with Israel; she visited Israel with her strongly liberal Catholics, including Biden non-Jewish father. himself. Here are the 15 Jews who com- prise Biden’s Jewish A-team. I strongly • Ron Klain, chief of staff. He was Biden’s believe that a vigorous American presence chief of staff in his vice presidential days. in world affairs, spearheaded by the Jewish Klain speaks of his childhood synagogue in A-Team, is in Israel’s long-term interest, Indianapolis, where he learned multiple Torah more than an “America first” administra- portions for his bar mitzvah, and of his com- tion that made the US largely irrelevant in mitment to raising Jewish children. global affairs. • Eric Lander, director, Office of Science & • Anthony Blinken, secretary of state. Technology Policy. Lander is a leading genet- Blinken is a veteran career diplomat. His icist. His position has been elevated to Cabinet stepfather, Samuel Pisar, was the only level. Lander has spoken of being the subject Holocaust survivor of some 900 children of antisemitic criticism by James Watson, dis- in his Polish school; he was rescued after coverer of the DNA double helix. ed Sister to Sister, an NGO that serves single fleeing from a Nazi death march and find- mothers across the US. ing refuge in a US armed corps tank – an • Rachel Levine, deputy secretary, Health and episode Blinken recounted movingly when Human Services. Levine grew up in a Conser- • Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state. Biden introduced him. vative Jewish home in Massachusetts. She is She was born in Maryland to a Jewish family. the first open transgender person to be nom- Her father served in the Marines. She will be • David Cohen, deputy CIA director. Co- inated for a position requiring Senate confir- the first woman to be appointed Deputy Sec- hen returns to this role after filling it from mation. retary of State. A career diplomat, she was the 2015 to 2017. Cohen is the son of a promi- lead negotiator for the controversial Iran nu- nent Boston Jewish physician. • Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of Home- clear deal. land Security. Mayorkas, 60, was the Dep- • Janet Yellen, secretary of the Treasury. uty Secretary of Homeland Security under • Jeff Zients, COVID-19 coordinator. He was She is the first woman to fill this role; pre- Obama. He was born in Cuba, to a Cuban born in Washington, DC, and was raised in viously, she headed the Federal Reserve Jewish father and Romanian Jewish moth- Kensington, Maryland. His family is Jewish. Board of Governors. A 2016 Trump attack er who survived the Shoah. He has worked From 2014 through 2017 he was the director ad featured three Jews, including Yellen, closely with Jewish groups in the past. of the National Economic Council. He will fill and reflected anti-Semitic tropes. She is a the crucial role of directing and coordinating renowned labor economist. • Anne Neuberger, director of cybersecurity, efforts to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. National Security Agency. She is an Orthodox • Merrick Garland, attorney-general. Jew, from Brooklyn, educated through college • Rochelle Walensky, director, Center for Garland was blocked from becoming a in Orthodox schools. She helped establish the Disease Control. She and her husband are Supreme Court Justice by then-Senate ma- US Cyber Command and led security efforts members of Temple Emanuel, in Newton, jority leader Mitch McConnell, in the last in the 2018 midterm elections. Her grandpar- Massachusetts, a prominent Conservative year of the Obama presidency. After being ents are Holocaust survivors and her parents synagogue. She is an expert on AIDS and HIV nominated Garland spoke of his grandpar- were among the passengers on the Air France and served as Chief of Infectious Diseases at ents, who fled antisemitism in Europe and flight in 1976, kidnapped to Uganda and res- Massachusetts General Hospital, and profes- moved to the US. cued in Israel’s Entebbe operation. She found- sor at Harvard Medical School. 18 THE JERUSALEM REPORT FEBRUARY 22, 2021 KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, US President Joe Biden and Kamala Harris meet with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in with his wife Evan Ryan at his side, the Oval Office on January 29 is ceremonially sworn in by US Vice President Kamala Harris at the White been confirmed as secretary of defense; Deb Rosen, Attorney General; Morgan Ortagus, House on January 27 Haaland, Interior; Tom Vilsack, Agriculture; Spokesperson, State Department; David Gina Raimondo, Commerce; Marty Walsh, Shulkin, Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Law- • Jared Bernstein, member, Council of Eco- Labor; Denis McDonough, Veterans Affairs; rence Kudlow, Director National Economic nomic Advisors. Under Obama, Bernstein Jennifer Granholm, Energy; Xavier Becerra, Council; Ivanka Trump, daughter, Advisor to was the chief economist and economic advis- Health and Human Services; and John Kerry, the President; John Eisenberg, National Se- er to Biden. presidential envoy for climate. curity Council Legal; Ezra Cohen-Watnick, To be fair, the Trump administration, too, Acting Under-Secretary of Defense for In- • Douglas Emhoff, second gentleman, hus- had many Jews in senior positions. Among telligence; Len Khodorkovsky, also Deputy band of US Vice President Kamala Harris. them: Jared Kushner, son-in-law and senior Special Envoy to monitor and combat an- He is the first-ever husband of a US Vice advisor; Elliot Abrams Special representative tisemitism. President. He was born in Brooklyn, son of for Venezuela, then Iran; David Friedman, It will be fascinating to watch how a strong- Jewish parents Barbara and Michael Emhoff. Ambassador to Israel; Jason Greenblatt, Spe- ly liberal Jewish-Catholic administration op- He grew up in New Jersey. He is an enter- cial Representative for International Negoti- erates. There is considerable irony attached tainment lawyer and teaches at Georgetown ations, the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; Steve to it, because the non-religious, irreligious University Law Center. Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury; Stephen Trump, who famously held a Bible upside Miller, Senior Advisor, Policy; Gary Cohn, down, was and is fanatically supported by This completes the 15 Jews in senior po- Director, White House National Economic Evangelical Christians, who were and who sitions in the Biden administration. And, just Council; Reed Cordish, Assistant to the Pres- remain a key part of his base. ■ for interest, here are the ten Catholics among ident, Intragovernmental and Technology Biden’s appointees, also a possible all-time Initiatives; Avrahm Berkowitz, Deputy Advi- The writer heads the Zvi Griliches Research high. sor to the President; Rod Rosenstein, Deputy Data Center at S. Neaman Institute, Techn- Foremost, Biden himself, a church-going Attorney General; Elan Carr, Special Envoy ion and blogs at www.timnovate.wordpress. liberal Catholic; Gen. Lloyd Austin, already to monitor and combat anti-Semitism; Jeffrey com THE JERUSALEM REPORT FEBRUARY 22, 2021 19.