March 15, 2013

WASHINGTON (JTA) —  The National Endowment for Democracy named Martin Frost, a pioneering Jewish former congressman, its new chairman.

Frost, a Democrat who represented the Dallas-Fort Worth area from 1979-2005, was the first Jewish chairman of the campaign to elect Democrats to the U.S. House of Representatives, in 1996, and was the first Jewish chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, from 1999-2003 — the third ranked position among Democrats in that chamber.

The National Endowment for Democracy board on March 12 named Frost to succeed Richard Gephardt, another Democrat who had been minority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Among the factors recommending Frost to the post, the organization said in a statement, was his chairmanship of a special House task force to help European nations transition to democracy in the post-Soviet era.

Frost currently is a shareholder in Polsinelli Shughart, a legal and lobbying firm with offices in Texas and Washington D.C.

The National Endowment for Democracy is a private nonprofit funded by Congress that supports pro-democracy groups abroad.

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