The council has 68 members, including presidential appointees, who serve five-year terms, along with senators and representatives and members of the education, interior and state departments.
Obama taps 4 to serve on Holocaust memorial board
Published January 10, 2017
(JTA) — The general counsel for the World Jewish Congress and a former State Department official are among four presidential appointees to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
President Barack Obama said last week that he had chosen Menachem Rosensaft, Michael Posner, Tamar Newberger and Eric Ortner to serve on the council, which Congress established in 1980 to commemorate the Holocaust and raise money for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
Rosensaft is a lecturer at Columbia Law School and adjunct professor at Cornell Law School. He serves as general counsel of the World Jewish Congress. He was previously appointed to serve on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council in 2010, 1999 and 1994.
Posner is a professor of ethics and finance at the New York University Stern School of Business. He served in the Obama administration in 2009-2013 as an assistant secretary of state.
Newberger, a computer scientist, is a board member of the International School of Prague and a trustee of the Jewish Women’s Federation of Chicago. She is the wife of Andrew Schapiro, the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, who was also nominated to his position by Obama.
Ortner, principal of the Ortner Group, is a former journalist and producer with NBC News, ABC News and CBS News. He has also worked as producer of “Good Morning America” and the “Today” show.
