Rahm Emanuel

Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician, advisor, diplomat, and former investment banker who most recently served as United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms from 2003 to 2009. He was the White House chief of staff from 2009 to 2010 under President Barack Obama and served as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019.

Born in Chicago, Emanuel is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Northwestern University. Early in his career, Emanuel served as director of the finance committee for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration, where he served as assistant to the president for political affairs and as senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy. Emanuel worked at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. from 1998 for two-and-a-half years, and served on the board of directors of Freddie Mac, who resigned to become governor of Illinois. Emanuel won the first of three terms representing Illinois's 5th congressional district, a seat he held from 2003 to 2009. As chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he oversaw Democratic wins in the 2006 U.S. House of Representatives elections, allowing the party to gain control of the chamber for the first time since 1994.

After the 2008 U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama appointed Emanuel to serve as White House chief of staff. In October 2010, Emanuel resigned as chief of staff to run in the 2011 Chicago mayoral election. Emanuel won with 55% of the vote over five other candidates in the non-partisan mayoral election. In the 2015 Chicago mayoral election, he failed to obtain an absolute majority in the first round but defeated Cook County board commissioner Jesús "Chuy" García in the subsequent run-off election. In late 2015, Emanuel's approval rating plunged to "the low 20s," in response to a series of scandals.

In October 2017, Emanuel announced he planned to run for a third term, but reversed his decision on September 4, 2018. The ''Chicago Tribune'' assessed Emanuel's performance as mayor as "mixed", and at one point half of Chicagoans favored Emanuel's resignation. He left office in May 2019 and was succeeded by Lori Lightfoot. In August 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Emanuel to be the United States Ambassador to Japan; he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December of that year. Emanuel departed his job in Japan upon the conclusion of the Biden administration in January 2025. On March 12, 2025, ''Politico'' reported that Emanuel was interested in running for president in the 2028 U.S. presidential election.

Early life and family

Emanuel's father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, was born in Jerusalem, where he was a member of the Irgun paramilitary organization. He moved to the United States to work as a pediatrician at Michael Reese Hospital. The surname ''Emanuel'' (Hebrew: ), which means "God is with us", was adopted by their family in memory of Rahm's uncle (his father's brother) Emanuel Auerbach, who died of an infection after being hit by a stray bullet in Jerusalem during the 1933 Palestine riots.

Emanuel's maternal grandfather was a Moldovan Jew who emigrated from Bessarabia. His mother, Marsha (née Smulevitz), is the daughter of a West Side Chicago labor union organizer who worked in the civil rights movement. She briefly owned a local rock and roll club, and later became an adherent of Benjamin Spock's writings.

Emanuel's parents met during the 1950s in Chicago. Emanuel was born on November 29, 1959, in Chicago, Illinois. His first name, ''Rahm'' () means ''high'' or ''lofty'' in Hebrew. He attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Lakeview for elementary school. He has been described by his older brother Ezekiel, an oncologist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, as "quiet and observant" as a child. Ari, his younger brother, is the CEO of Endeavor, an entertainment agency with headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. Emanuel also has a younger adopted sister, Shoshana.

Education and ballet dance

Ezekiel has written that their father "did not believe in falsely building his sons' self-esteem by purposefully letting us win, or tolerating sloppy play." About Rahm, he also wrote:

While he lived in Chicago, Emanuel attended the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School. After his family moved to Wilmette, north of the city, Emanuel attended public schools: Romona School, Locust Junior High School, and New Trier High School. He and his brothers attended summer camp in Israel, including the summer following the June 1967 Six-Day War. While a high school student working part-time at an Arby's restaurant, Emanuel severely cut his right middle finger on a meat slicer, which was later infected from swimming in Lake Michigan. His finger was partially amputated due to the severity of the infection.

Rahm was encouraged by his mother to take ballet lessons, and is a graduate of the Evanston School of Ballet, as well as a student of the Joel Hall Dance Center, where his children later took lessons. He won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, but turned it down to attend Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts school with a strong dance program. While an undergraduate, Emanuel was elected to the Sarah Lawrence Student Senate. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in liberal arts, and went on to receive a master of arts in speech and communication from Northwestern University in 1985.

Emanuel took part in a two-week civilian volunteer holiday, known as the Sar-El, where, as a civilian volunteer, he assisted the Israel Defense Forces during the 1991 Gulf War, helping to repair truck brakes in one of Israel's northern bases.

Political staffer career

Emanuel began his political career with the public interest and consumer rights organization Illinois Public Action. He went on to serve in a number of capacities in local and national politics, initially specializing in fund-raising for Illinois campaigns, and then nationally. Emanuel worked for Democrat Paul Simon's 1984 election to the U.S. Senate. He also worked as the national campaign director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1988, and was senior advisor and chief fund-raiser for Richard M. Daley's successful initial campaign for mayor of Chicago, in 1989. He subsequently worked for Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan, conducting opposition research for his 1990 gubernatorial campaign.

At the start of then- Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's presidential primary campaign, Emanuel was appointed to direct the campaign's finance committee. Emanuel insisted that Clinton schedule time for fund-raising and delay campaigning in New Hampshire. Clinton embarked on an aggressive national fund-raising campaign that allowed the campaign to keep buying television time as attacks on Clinton's character threatened to swamp the campaign during the New Hampshire primary. Clinton's primary rival, Paul Tsongas (the New Hampshire Democratic primary winner), later withdrew, citing a lack of campaign funds. Richard Mintz, a Washington public relations consultant who worked with Emanuel on the campaign, spoke about the soundness of the idea: "It was that xtramillion dollars that really allowed the campaign to withstand the storm we had to ride out in New Hampshire ver Clinton's relationship with Gennifer Flowers and the controversy over his conscription">draft