From there he was off to Bet Mishpachah, Washington’s gay and lesbian synagogue, to speak at Gay Pride Shabbat services, after which he led the congregants outside. He then jumped into a cab and sped back to the White House, where he stood with the rest of the White House staff while the president “gave this very poignant address,” he said. “All the LGBT lawyers of the Supreme Court Bar are there, and we’re all in tears,” he told the Keshet gathering. It was June 26th 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to be married. The greatest day in his job wove together the gay and the Jewish strands of his identity. “It resonated with him” and his value of “using religion as a force for good,” Nosanchuk said. Obama “didn’t know about that” before Nosanchuk contributed the idea to the president’s speech. President Obama concluded his speech by calling on everyone to act as a Lamed Vavnik – according to Jewish tradition, one of the 36 righteous, anonymous individuals in every generation who is responsible for saving the world. The speech Obama gave January 27th at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on International Holocaust Remembrance Day bore Nosanchuk’s imprint. “There are certainly individual things about Jewish issues relating to Jewish holidays or rituals or pronunciations of words” that Nosanchuk said he shares with the president. But has Nosanchuk taught the president anything about Judaism? Obama’s feeling of connection to the Jewish story of liberation is well known. It was immediately after the Iran vote and things were still ugly” between the Netanyahu and Obama administrations, making Nosanchuk’s presence even more illustrative of how well he is liked across the political spectrum. Matt was the only administration member at Ron Dermer’s house for his Rosh Hashana party. “He has managed to walk that line very successfully and not make enemies along the way. “Matt swims incredibly comfortably between AIPAC and J Street, and black hat Orthodox and Reform, and still does the job,” said Rabinowitz. Nosanchuk “navigated the Iran debate, which was exceptionally difficult, in a very deft way,” said Steven Rabinowitz, founder of Washington political communications firm Bluelight Strategies, who considers Nosanchuk a friend. Nosanchuk did his best to temper the various concerned parties – a near-impossible task that he managed with rare skill. Nosanchuk said the visit was part of “a sustained effort” to “do things that affirmed the president’s strong support for Israel and its security, and his identification with and shared values he had with the American Jewish community on a host of issues, including Israel.”ĭespite those efforts, last summer “was a very intense period, obviously,” he said, referring to the charged debate around the Iranian nuclear deal. While the president’s interest was sincere, said someone there, it was also part of what was viewed as a “charm offensive” shortly after Benjamin Netanyahu was re-elected prime minister, which followed his controversial speech to Congress. The rabbi opened a Torah scroll and showed the president that week’s Torah portion. Before his speech, President Obama toured the synagogue’s beit midrash. Nosanchuk also orchestrated the president’s visit to Washington’s Conservative Congregation Adas Israel last May. “We’ve had Tu B’shvat and Passover and lots of opportunities for the White House staff and other administration members to learn about Jewish holidays,” he said. In his current role, Nosanchuk is responsible for the first-ever sukkah at the vice president’s residence, where they held a reception.
Nosanchuk earned both his undergraduate and law degrees at Stanford University, and spent his junior year abroad at Haifa University.
He also spent time at the litigation firm of Nathan Lewin, who is well known for representing Orthodox Jewish concerns. He started working at the White House after a stint at the Department of Justice on HIV-AIDS and LGBT issues and earlier as a public-interest lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union. He went to school in “mostly WASP-y Grosse Pointe,” he told the Keshet gathering. They moved there from Ontario, Canada after his parents divorced when he was six. An only child, Nosanchuk was raised in a Jewish secular humanist household with his mother in the Detroit area. Nosanchuk’s work and coming out has brought him closer to his Jewish identity, he said. “He models that being gay and Jewish can be an integrated identity in public life.
White house lit up gay flag colors professional#
Being out was seen as an obstacle to professional success,” Idit Klein, the executive director of Keshet, told Haaretz. “Not too long ago, LGBTQ people were largely invisible both in secular public life and in the Jewish community.