B’nai B’rith International (BBI) has chosen David J. Michaels as its new director of United Nations and intercommunal affairs. Michaels will guide B’nai B’rith’s response to such challenges as the contentious Durban Review Conference on racism, scheduled for April.
Michaels has led B’nai B’rith’s intercommunal affairs office since it was launched in 2006. His diplomatic experience includes interreligious engagement with Pope Benedict XVI and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He has worked closely with two predecessors on key issues, among them Israel’s inclusion in the international Red Cross movement and the adoption by the U.N. of Holocaust Commemoration Day.
“David Michaels’ professionalism and energy in reaching out to government officials and faith leaders alike make him the right choice for his new role,” said BBI Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin.
Michaels joined B’nai B’rith in 2004, and served for two years as special assistant to Mariaschin. He studied political science and Judaic studies at Yeshiva University, and was the first non-European to complete an apprenticeship at the Foreign Ministry of Germany. In 2008, Michaels was awarded the Sidney H. Closter Award for an outstanding new staff member at B’nai B’rith, and the Young Professional Award of the Jewish Communal Service Association of North America.
BBI is the only major Jewish organization with a full-time office dedicated to U.N. affairs. B’nai B’rith has been present at the U.N since the world body’s founding in 1945, and was accredited soon after as a non-governmental organization (NGO) with special consultative status. BBI is represented at the U.N. in New York, Geneva, Paris, Vienna, and Santiago. B’nai B’rith’s Council on United Nations Affairs is led by a lay chairman, Ambassador Joseph E. Harari of Panama City, and vice chairman, Aaron Etra of New York.
