What do we know about Tom Nides, the next US ambassador to Israel?
Tom Nides was born to a Jewish family in Duluth, Minnesota. He started his career on Capitol Hill in 1986, working as an aide for House Majority Whip Tony Coelho and then in 1989 for House Speaker Tom Foley. He also served as chief of staff for US Trade Representative Mickey Kantor. In 1994, he moved to the banking sector, with stints at the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), Credit Suisse First Boston, and Morgan Stanley. His rise in finance caught the eye of the Obama administration, which appointed him as a deputy secretary to Hillary Clinton at the State Department.
Nides’s sense of humor came up often in our conversations with colleagues who’ve known him over the years; he’s no stodgy diplomat, they said, and he’ll have an easy time connecting with Israelis.
He’ll also be the third Jewish ambassador to Israel in a row, after Obama’s Dan Shapiro and Trump’s David Friedman. He won out over other Jewish candidates such as Robert Wexler and Amos Hochstein, and even Dan Shapiro, whose name was floated for a comeback.
When we think of the US ambassador to Israel, we seem to take it for granted that he’s a Jew. But it wasn’t always that way. In fact, only four of America’s 19 ambassadors to Israel — Martin Indyk, Dan Kurtzer, Shapiro, and Friedman — have been Jewish.
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