JACK LEW is the most powerful Jew in the US administration, the world’s top superpower. Formerly President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, his current post of secretary of the Treasury puts him in one of the key jobs in the executive cabinet: proctoring economic recovery, forecasting future debt, and managing a complex infrastructure of international sanctions. The Treasury, not the Pentagon, would be responsible for the weapon of choice used by Obama against a nuclear Iran, and Lew has been central in shaping the policy.
Controlling the purse strings of the US Treasury, Lew’s proximity to the president, the most powerful person on the planet, is indisputable.
Last year, when Obama appointed Lew as his chief of staff, he said, “If there was a Hall of Fame for budget directors, then Jack Lew surely would have earned a place for his service in that role under president Clinton.”
Lew has served as one of Obama’s top lieutenants in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” crisis. And when Obama was locked in painful spending negotiations with House Republicans last spring, Lew went to the Oval Office to propose some complex budget changes.
As Lew delved deeper and deeper into the numbers, Obama put up his hand, signaling him to stop.
“Jack, it’s fine,” the president said, according to Gene Sperling, Obama’s economics adviser, who witnessed the exchange. “I trust your values. I trust your judgment on this.”
His appointment to the Treasury secretary was above else a testament to Obama’s appreciation of Lew’s skills, values and judgment. But it was also an opportunity for Jews in Israel and abroad to delight in the fact that a member of the tribe had climbed to such an influential position in the US.
This is especially true in the case of Lew, a man proud of his Jewish roots and unabashedly committed to his rich tradition. An Orthodox Jew who observes Shabbat, he regularly attends synagogue services. Lew’s former chief on the National Security Council, Sandy Berger, once commented that “Lew’s faith never got in the way of performing his duties.”
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