US President Barack Obama confirmed the appointment of his current Chief of Staff, the first Orthodox Jew to have held the post, Jack Lew, to the high-profile role of Treasury Secretary Thursday, as he paid tribute to his deep-rooted faith and immigrant roots for instilling in him the knowledge that “every decision we make has to be an expression of who we wish to be as a nation, our values”.
Paying tribute to his year serving as his personal Chief of Staff, during which the President admitted having “sought Jack’s advice on virtually every decision that I’ve made, from economic policy to foreign policy”, Obama concluded that with Lew’s low-key ethos and policy expertise, “my loss will be the nation’s gain”.
Lew, who does not work on Shabbat has been a keen ally of Obama’s as well as enjoying key links with Washington Jewish leaders, lobbying their support for the President during his recent 2012 re-election campaign. It is thought he will maintain US policy with regard to Iran sanctions after outgoing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner committed to creating a bilateral forum to review to impact of sanctions and how further pressure could be implemented on Iran, with is Israeli counterpart, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz in Washington this week. Newly-appointed Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel is also known to be a key proponent of employing economic pressure to counter the Iranian nuclear threat.
Towards the end of Obama’s ultimately successful campaign last year, Lew told Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post that “the United States and Israel have never had a closer relationship working day to day on matters of national security at every level”, in response to criticism of Obama’s apparently fractured relationship with the Israeli administration. A former practising lawyer and Harvard graduate, he has extensive experience as a policy advisor to Senators, as well as serving as Executive Director of the Centre for Middle East research.
As well as serving as Obama’s Chief of Staff, he previously acted as former Democrat President Bill Clinton’s Special Assistant, as well as advising him on budgetary and appropriations matters. During Obama’s first term in office, he served as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, in essence occupying the role as the department’s chief operating officer under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s leadership. He was ten appointed by Obama as Budget Director, in an echo of Clinton’s administration a decade previously.
A member of the Beth Shalom Congregation, he is openly practising Jew, whose former boss on the National Security Council Sandy Berger once said of him that his “faith never got in the way of performing his duties”. According to Berger, Lew “was able to balance the requirements, which was very, very ahrd – and he was determined to observer his religious traditions”.
Invoking his upbringing in the US, as the son of Jewish immigrant parents, Lew responded to his appointment Thursday by saying he would “always be grateful to my parents for grounding me in the values that have remained central to my personal and professional life”. Expressing gratitude for Obama’s faith in him, he concluded: “Serving in your administration has allowed me to live out those values my parents instilled in me, and I look forward to continuing with the challenges ahead.”