Jack Lew

Early life, education, and early career

Lew was born in New York City, the son of Ruth (née Turoff) and Irving Lew. His family is Jewish. He attended New York City public schools, graduating from Forest Hills High School. His father was a lawyer and rare book dealer who came to the United States from Poland as a child. Lew attended Carleton College in Minnesota for a year, where his faculty adviser was Paul Wellstone, who eventually represented Minnesota in the U.S. Senate. He graduated from Harvard College in 1978 and the Georgetown University Law Center in 1983.

He worked as an aide to Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass.) from 1974 to 1975.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/203739-jack-lew-like-rahm-sans- |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=live |access-date=January 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/jack-lew-the-man-who-could-save-obama-s-legacy-20121101 |archive-date= March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

Lew practiced as an attorney for five years as a partner at Van Ness Feldman and Curtis. His practice dealt primarily with electric power generation. He has also worked as Executive Director of the Center for Middle East Research, Issues Director for the Democratic National Committee's Campaign 88, and Deputy Director of the Office of Program Analysis in the city of Boston's Office of Management and Budget.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/media/minority-media/thompson-schedules-nomination-hearing-on-jacob-j-lew |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

Clinton administration

From February 1993 to 1994, Lew served as Special Assistant to the President under Bill Clinton.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.georgetown.edu/news/jack-lew-obama-chief-of-staff.html |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=105250&WhenStart=2012-01-26+19%3A14%3A36 |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

Lew left the White House in October 1994 to work as OMB's Executive Associate Director and Associate Director for Legislative Affairs.{{cite web |access-date=January 14, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://clinton6.nara.gov/1998/04/1998-04-14-jack-lew-nominated-to-be-omb-director.html |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://news.yahoo.com/look-white-house-chief-staff-jack-lew-222900763.html |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

President Clinton nominated Lew to be director of the OMB, and his nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 31, 1998. He served in that capacity until the end of the Clinton administration in January 2001. As OMB director, Lew had the lead responsibility for the Clinton Administration's policies on budget, management, and appropriations issues. As a member of the Cabinet and senior member of the economic team, he advised the president on a broad range of domestic and international policies. He represented the Administration in budget negotiations with Congress and served as a member of the National Security Council.

Between Clinton and Obama tenures

After leaving public office in the Clinton administration, Lew served as the executive vice president for operations at New York University and was a clinical professor of public administration at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service. While at NYU, Lew aided the university in ending graduate students' collective bargaining rights. The Obama administration has maintained that Lew supports workers' union rights.{{cite web |access-date=January 10, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.salon.com/2013/01/09/jack_lews_union_busting_past/ |archive-date= March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

In June 2006, Lew was named chief operating officer of Citigroup's Alternative Investments unit, a proprietary trading group. The unit he oversaw invested in a hedge fund "that bet on the housing market to collapse."{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010032612/https://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/01/flashback-lews-time-citi-and-other-disappointments |archive-date=October 10, 2013 |url-status=dead

Lew co-chaired the Advisory Board for City Year New York.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://cityyearnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/director-jack-lew-blogs-about-cyny/ |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://blogs.yu.edu/news/2012/11/26/yu-hanukkah-dinner-and-convocation/ |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

Obama administration

Deputy Secretary of State

As Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Lew was the State Department's chief operating officer and was primarily responsible for resource issues, while James Steinberg, who also served as Deputy Secretary of State during that period was responsible for policy.{{cite news |access-date=February 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aHUvNBzk6p5w |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=February 6, 2011

Budget director

On July 13, 2010, the White House announced that Lew had been chosen to replace Peter Orszag as director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), subject to Senate confirmation.{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170216093801/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-announces-his-intent-nominate-jacob-lew-omb-director |archive-date=February 16, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.alternet.org/economy/matt-taibbi-bill-black-obamas-new-treasury-secretary-failure-epic-proportions?page=0%2C1 |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

On November 18, 2010, Lew was confirmed by the Senate by unanimous consent.

The $3.7 trillion 2011 budget President Obama unveiled the administration estimated reductions to federal spending deficits by $1.1 trillion over the next decade if adopted and economic assumptions were fully achieved. Two-thirds of that estimated reduction would come from spending cuts through a five-year freeze in discretionary spending first announced in Obama's 2011 State of the Union address, as well as savings to mandatory programs such as Medicare and lower interest payments on the debt that would result from the lower spending. Tax increases are responsible for the other third of the reduction, including a cap on itemized reductions for wealthier taxpayers and the elimination of tax breaks for oil and gas companies.{{cite web |access-date=November 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010032006/http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/143777-obama-tries-to-prove-cost-cutting-credentials-in-budget-rollout |archive-date=October 10, 2013 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2012/12/obamas-omb-channels-its-inner-tea-party.html |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

In an op-ed in the Huffington Post, Lew cited top Administration priorities to achieve deficit reduction; including: $400 billion in savings from non-security discretionary spending freezes, $78 billion in cuts to the Department of Defense, returning to the Clinton-era tax rates for the top 2% of income earners, and lowering the corporate tax from 35% to 25%.

Chief of Staff

On January 9, 2012, President Obama announced that Lew would replace William M. Daley as White House Chief of Staff. Lew's nomination was followed with criticism{{cite web |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.salon.com/2012/01/10/the_new_wh_chief_of_staff_and_citigroup/ |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jul/28/omb-nominee-got-900000-after-citigroup-bailout/?page=2 |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130116055357/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/us/politics/11citi.html |archive-date=January 16, 2013 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.businessinsider.com/jack-lew-omb-bonus-2010-7 |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109211712/http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/citigroup_inc/index.html |archive-date=January 9, 2014 |url-status=dead

During his tenure as chief of staff, Lew was seen as a supporter and top negotiator for a "grand bargain" deal between President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, to avoid "fiscal cliff" sequester cuts and tax increases.

Secretary of the Treasury

On January 10, 2013, President Obama nominated Lew for the position of Secretary of the Treasury. The nomination became the subject of some humorous commentary, due to Lew's unusual loopy signature, which would have appeared on all newly issued U.S. paper currency for the duration of his tenure; the signature generated enough media attention that Obama joked at a press conference that he had considered rescinding his nomination when he learned of it. Lew later adopted a more conventional signature for currency. The Senate Finance Committee held confirmation hearings for Lew on February 13, 2013. During his confirmation hearings before the United States Senate Committee on Finance, Republican senator Chuck Grassley expressed concern that Lew did not know what Ugland House was, though he had invested in it. Lew had invested heavily in funds in Ugland House, while he worked as an investment banker at Citigroup during the 2008 financial crisis. Lew had taken advantage of current tax law, and his financial allocation in the venture resulted in Lew taking roughly a 2.8% loss, a $1,582 decrease in his investment principal.{{cite news |access-date=February 18, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-potpourri/2013/feb/16/treasury-secretary-jack-lew-politically-inconvenie/#ixzz2LIWk9Izz |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=dead

On February 27, 2013, the full Senate voted and approved Lew for Secretary of the Treasury by a 71–26 vote. He was sworn into office on February 28, 2013.{{cite web |access-date=February 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140303234434/http://www.cnbc.com/id/100503428 |archive-date=March 3, 2014 |url-status=live

In December 2013, Lew said that the government might run out of cash to pay the country's bills by late February or early March 2014. That set up yet another showdown in Congress over raising or suspending the debt limit, a statutory limit on the total amount of United States borrowing, early in the year. "The creditworthiness of the United States is an essential underpinning of our strength as a nation; it is not a bargaining chip to be used for partisan political ends," Mr. Lew said in the letter. "Increasing the debt limit does not authorize new spending commitments. It simply allows the government to pay for expenditures Congress has already approved."

In May 2014, Lew received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Georgetown University, and spoke at the first commencement ceremony of the McCourt School of Public Policy.

In 2016, a fictionalized version of Lew appeared in season 2 episode 2 and episode 11 in the series Mr. Robot.

Biden administration

Ambassador to Israel

On September 5, 2023, President Biden nominated Lew as the U.S. ambassador to Israel. A hearing on his nomination took place before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on October 18, 2023. Lew's confirmation coincided with Congress responding to the October 7 attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza. Although Biden had nominated Lew before the war began, the urgency surrounding his confirmation heightened as hostilities between Israel and Gaza intensified. While Republicans recognized the necessity of a Senate-confirmed ambassador, they opposed Lew, expressing concerns about his role in the multinational nuclear pact with Iran during the Obama years. They argued that this made him an unreliable interlocutor with Israel and questioned him about the deal during his confirmation hearing.

On October 25, 2023, the committee advanced his nomination by a 12–9 vote, with Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, joining all of the Democrats to advance his nomination to the full Senate. On October 31, 2023, the United States Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 53–44 vote. Later that day, Lew's nomination was confirmed by a 53–43 vote, with Republican senators Rand Paul and Lindsey Graham voting to confirm his nomination. Lew presented his credentials to President Isaac Herzog on November 5, 2023.

In January 2024, Lew advocated the US State Department to approve Boeing manufactured GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb sales to Israel, asserting that the Israeli air force would minimize civilian death. GBU-39 bombs were later identified in attacks on dense civilian areas, including the Tel al-Sultan attack, Al-Sardi school attack, and Al-Tabaeen school attack. Embassy officials in both Jerusalem and Washington say that concerns about civilian death tolls, including the targeting of Palestinian embassy employees and their families, were brought to Lew repeatedly. Such concerns were not found in Lew's diplomatic cables.

According to Reuters, in February 2024, Lew and his deputy Stephanie Hallett had blocked distribution of several cables written by USAID staffers which described the severity of humanitarian conditions in Gaza at the time. One included descriptions of human bones left on roads and "catastrophic human needs, particularly for food and safe drinking water". Lew and Hallett prevented further distribution of the reports within the government as they believed they were insufficiently balanced.

Controversies

On August 26, 2025, in an interview with The New Yorker staff writer Isaac Chotiner, Lew justified Israel's killing of children during the ongoing Gaza war, saying that "in many cases, the children were children of Hamas fighters, not children taking cover in places" and therefore "whether or not it was a legitimate military target flows from the population that’s there". "Killing and Maiming children" is one of the six grave violations identified and condemned by the United Nations Security Council.

Personal life

Lew married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Schwartz. As Chief of Staff, Lew commuted to Washington from the couple's home in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City. They have two grown children, one of whom is Shoshana Lew, head of the Colorado Department of Transportation.

Lew is an Orthodox Jew who observes the Jewish Shabbat and has attended Beth Sholom Congregation in Potomac, Maryland; TheSHUL of the Nation's Capital and Kesher Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C.; and the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in the Bronx, New York. Interviewed in a 2010 article, Lew's former boss on the National Security Council, Sandy Berger, commented that "Lew's faith never got in the way of performing his duties."

In 1971, at the age of 16, Lew helped organize The New York March Against Hunger. In 2018, Lew was honored by Queens Community House for his lifelong contributions to social equality.

References

References

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