YU Alum Kurtzer Rumored as Next Ambassador to Israel

Kurtzer has spent most of his diplomatic career immersed in Middle Eastern politics. Since he first joined the United States Foreign Service in 1976 as a political officer in Cairo, Kurtzer has held a number of diplomatic posts in the region under both Republican and Democratic administrations. During that time, he has earned his colleagues' respect with innovative solutions to seemingly unbridgeable differences.

Kurtzer graduated from Yeshiva College in 1971 and went on to earn two M.A.'s and a Ph.D. in Political Science at Columbia. Shortly after he began his political career in 1976, Kurtzer returned to YC as its dean. In 1979, Kurtzer left his post as YC Dean and returned to Foreign Service as second secretary for political affairs at the American Embassy in Cairo. "Dr. Kurtzer was a phenomenal student at Yeshiva College, and an equally successful dean," recalled Yeshiva President Rabbi Norman Lamm fondly. "I tried to get him to stay on as Yeshiva College's dean, but the State Department was more convincing," Lamm quipped.

Continuing his diplomatic career, Kurtzer was appointed first secretary for political affairs at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv in 1982. He returned to Washington in 1986 to successive assignments as deputy director for Egyptian Affairs and then as speechwriter and member of the Secretary's Policy Planning Staff. In 1989, he was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, with responsibility for the Middle East peace process and US bilateral relations with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinians. In 1994, Kurtzer was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, and he became the Acting Assistant Secretary in May 1997. Desiring to travel abroad once again, Kurtzer sought the Tel Aviv post, but was instead directed to Cairo by then-president Bill Clinton, where Kurtzer developed good working relations with Egyptian officials but was at times mocked in the Egyptian press for his religious beliefs. With Bush's election, Kurtzer made clear to the administration early on that he remained interested in the Israel posting. Kurtzer's State Department career has spanned critical years. "Dan's been associated with every breakthrough in Arab-Israel diplomacy since the early l980's," said Ambassador Thomas Pickering when Kurtzer was sworn as the Egyptian Envoy ceremony. "No one has worked harder, cared more, or made more of a contribution toward Arab-Israeli peace."

Kurtzer has served as a key member of the US peace-process team for more than a decade. He is already well acquainted with many Israeli and Palestinian officials and should be prepared to slide into this new post that will likely become crucial in forging Bush's Middle East policy. In the past, Kurtzer has proven a staunch proponent of peace. When asked in November of 1979 about problems he might face with dual loyalties, Kurtzer said that he did not have that problem since he had no opposition to the foreign policy principles of the United States. Since then, he has encouraged closer US-Egyptian relations, recently describing the friendship between the two countries as "rock solid." On December 8, 1977 Kurtzer returned to Yeshiva to deliver a lecture sponsored by the Yeshiva College Political Science Society. There he explained that people have to view diplomacy as "a process, rather than as a stagnating institution. …The starting point for all discussions of changing United States Middle East policy is the premise that there will be a secure and safe Israel."

Prior to 1948, there were more than ten thousand Jewish residents in Egypt, but when Kurtzer first arrived in Cairo, Egypt's Jewish community numbered fewer than three hundred. There were twelve synagogues, but the only one that functioned on a regular basis largely depended on the availability of tourists to form a minyan. The area had one shochet, who was 95 years old with shaky hands. While Kurtzer was there he did perform some private tutoring, but there were no Jewish educational facilities. He has acknowledged that Orthodox life abroad was often taxing. From a religious standpoint, Tel- Aviv will be far more convenient than Cairo, but Kurtzer's political challenges will likely only increase. As Israel approaches a crucial juncture in the peace process, Kurtzer will be taking on a more critical and visible role.

In summing up Yeshiva's pride over one of its most successful graduates, Rabbi Lamm reflected on Kurtzer's commitment to Modern Orthodoxy. "It says something about our ethos that Modern Orthodoxy has produced a Vice Presidential candidate and an Ambassador to both Cairo and Israel over the past year," Lamm remarked.