WASHINGTON (JTA) — The White House named as its new Jewish liaison a former State Department staffer who worked to combat anti-Semitism worldwide.
Chanan Weissman, formerly the spokesman for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, worked there with Ira Forman, the envoy combating anti-Semitism.
Weissman, 32, replaces Matt Nosanchuk, who stepped down in March after nearly three years on the job.
“It’s a personal and professional honor of a lifetime to serve a president I so deeply admire and to work with a community I so intimately and proudly identify with,” Weissman said in a statement sent to JTA by the White House. “I’m looking forward to working with Jewish community leaders and lay people across the country in the months ahead.”
Weissman, a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, has also worked at the Pentagon on Middle East issues.
He is from Baltimore, where he graduated from Beth Tfiloh, a Jewish community day school.
Nosanchuk is now at the State Department, in the Office of Religion and Global Affairs, where he works on engaging faith communities and the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Jewish Insider first reported Weissman’s appointment.
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