President Joe Biden has appointed philanthropist Susie Gelman to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, the White House introduced Friday.

Ms. Gelman, a former board chair of the Israel Policy Forum, joins the panel after Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum accomplished a two-year time period in March.

Ms. Kleinbaum, senior rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah in New York City, was named by Mr. Biden to the panel in 2021.

Commission Chair Abraham Cooper stated in a press release that Ms. Gelman’s “expertise and insight on global antisemitism and freedom of religion or belief will be a great addition to help support the Commission’s mission to unflinchingly identify threats to international religious freedom.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is an impartial, bipartisan panel established by Congress to report on spiritual freedom abroad and make coverage suggestions to the president, the secretary of state and Congress. Commissioners are appointed by the president and leaders of each events within the House and the Senate.

Ms. Gelman served as Israel Policy Forum chair from 2016 till May of this 12 months. The nonprofit discussion board advocates for a two-state answer in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Mr. Biden lauded her work in a video message when she left the discussion board. “For seven years she has led the board of Israel Policy Forum with passion, purpose and a sense of possibilities of what we can achieve if we work together — greater peace, greater stability, greater connection,” he stated, in response to media reviews.

Ms. Gelman additionally beforehand served as president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, the place she was named a life member of its board of administrators.

She was the inaugural chair of the Birthright Israel Foundation, which helps academic journeys for younger Jewish adults to go to Israel, and is a previous president of the Goldman Environmental Foundation, a household charity.

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