The Obama administration plans to appoint Brandeis alumnus Daniel Shapiro '91 to be the next United States ambassador to Israel, according to POLITICO, a multimedia political news source.According to POLITICO, Shapiro is currently the National Security Council's Senior Director for the Middle East and North Africa. The Alumni Association Directory on B Connect shows that he majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis.

Shapiro transferred to Brandeis after his freshman year at Washington University in St. Louis, noted POLITICO. He then attended Harvard University for graduate school, where he earned a Master's degree in Middle Eastern Politics in 1993, according to the Washington Post.

Shapiro began his career in politics as a staff member for the House Foreign Relations Committee, and he served for 2 years on theNational Security Council underPresident Bill Clinton. He then became the deputy chief of staff for SenatorBill Nelson(D-Fla.), according to The Washington Post.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Shapiro was appointed as a senior policy adviser and Jewish outreach coordinator for the Obama campaign in 2008.

Shapiro is currently considered the Obama administration's central liaison to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and he has close relations with Netanyahu and his advisors, according to Israeli news source Haaretz.

Shapiro married Julie Fisher '90 a few years after graduating from Brandeis, and many of their Brandeis friends attended the wedding, said Associate Director of Leadership Gifts of Development and Alumni Relations Julie Smith-Bartoloni '90 in an interview with the Justice.

Smith-Bartoloni said that she was a good friend of Fisher's and they lived off campus together at 169 South St. in 1989 and 1990 while Fisher was dating Shapiro. She called Shapiro "a great student" and a "great person." She recalled that his interests in college included Hebrew, Arabic and the Middle East.

"I never really thought about him in the political arena, but it makes a lot of sense because he is . a person who can really find a point in common with anyone that he meets," said Smith-Bartoloni. "I definitely thought that he would either be something like a rabbi, a university professor, definitely some kind of profession where learning and teaching and communicating was an integral part of his profession."

Smith-Bartoloni said that when she visits Shapiro and Fisher, "It still feels very much like going back into 169 South St."


-Andrew Wingens