Rahm
Emanuel
Jewish US politician, * November 29, 1959 in Chicago, Illinois
E. surname was adopted by his family in 1933, after his paternal uncle, Emanuel Auerbach, was killed in a
fight with Arabs in Jerusalem. His father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, was born in Jerusalem and was a member of the Irgun, a Jewish militant Zionist group which operated from 1931 to 1948 during the British Mandate of Palestine. His mother, Martha
Smulevitz, became a civil rights activist. The two met in Chicago in the
1950s. E. was born an Israeli citizen due to his father's (dual) Israeli-US
citizenship.
When E.'s family lived in Chicago, he attended a Jewish day school. E. and his brothers attended summer camps in
Israel. E. graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1981, and went on to receive a master's degree in Speech and Communication from Northwestern University in 1985.
E. had served in the Israeli Army and was a civilian volunteer in the Israel
Forces during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. His wife, Amy Rule, converted to Judaism shortly before her
wedding. They are members of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel, an Orthodox Jewish congregation in
Chicago. They have three children, son Zachariah and daughters Ilana and
Leah.
E. is a close friend of David Axelrod, Chief Strategist for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign. Axelrod signed the ketuba, a Jewish marriage contract, at
E.'s wedding, an honor that goes to a family friend. Rabbi Asher Lopatin of Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel
said: "It's a very involved Jewish family"; E. has said of his Judaism: "I am proud of my heritage and treasure the values it has taught
me." The family lives on the North Side of Chicago. In 1992, E.'s knowledge of the top Jewish donors
helped Bill Clinton amass a then-unheard-of sum of $72 million. Following the
campaign, E. became a senior advisor to Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998.
In 1998 E. became an investment banker at Wasserstein Perella, (now Dresdner Kleinwort), where he worked until
2002. In 1999, he became a managing director at the firm’s Chicago office.
E. made $16.2 million in his two-and-a-half-year stint as a banker. E. was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac") by then President Bill Clinton in 2000. During the time
E. spent on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting
irregularities. E. resigned from the board in 2001 when he ran for congress,
after he had relinquished his Israeli citizenship. This was criticized by
his opponents who were denounced as anti-Semitic.
E. won the
2002 election and supported the October 2002 joint Congressional resolution authorizing the Iraq War, differentiating himself from all nine other Democratic members of the Illinois Congressional delegation.
In the 2006 elections, E. recruited the right candidates, found the money and funded them, and provided issues for them.
During the 2008 election cycle, E. was the top Congress recipient in the of contributions from hedge funds, private equity firms and the larger
securities/investment industry.
E. is a strong Israel partisan. In June 2007, he condemned an outbreak of Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip and criticized Arab countries.
On November 6, 2008, E. accepted the position of White House Chief of Staff for Barack
Obama. In an article headlined “Our Man in the White House”, E.'s father, Benjamin, was quoted as saying, "Obviously, he will influence the President to be pro-Israel. Why shouldn't he do it? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floor of the White House."
Werke von / Works of E.:
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Letzte Änderung / Last update: 10.11.2008
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