David Melech Friedman (born c. 1959) is an American bankruptcy lawyer. In December 2016, he was identified as President-elect Donald Trump's choice for United States Ambassador to Israel.
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Early life and education
Friedman was born circa 1959 as one of four children to Morris S. Friedman. His father was a rabbi at Temple Hillel, a Conservative synagogue in North Woodmere, New York, a hamlet in Long Island, and served as the head of the New York Board of Rabbis. Friedman grew up in North Woodmere.
He attended Columbia University and New York University School of Law, from which he graduated in 1981. He has been a member of the New York bar since 1982.
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Career
Friedman is a bankruptcy lawyer who worked for The Trump Organization. He is a founding partner of the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which he joined in 1994. In 2005, he developed a personal friendship with Donald Trump when Trump visited for his father's shiva.
Friedman serves as the president of the American Friends of Bet El Institutions, an educational organization located in the West Bank settlement of Beit El. He has made charitable contributions to the United Hatzalah ("united rescue") of Israel and Aleh Negev. He has authored columns in Arutz Sheva and The Jerusalem Post.
Nomination for Ambassador to Israel
On December 15, 2016, the transition team of President-elect Donald Trump announced that Friedman had been selected to be the nominee as the United States Ambassador to Israel. Friedman said in a statement that he would move the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which had been one of Trump's campaign promises.
Views
Friedman is a Zionist. He is noted for his conservative and controversial political views, such as his belief that the "Jewish left" is a danger to the State of Israel, and that Jews who supported the liberal group J Street, are "just smug advocates of Israel's destruction", and worse than Jews who helped the Nazis during the Holocaust. "Are J Street supporters really as bad as kapos? The answer, actually, is no. They are far worse than kapos - Jews who turned in their fellow Jews in the Nazi death camps. The kapos faced extraordinary cruelty and who knows what any of us would have done under those circumstances to save a loved one? But J Street? They are just smug advocates of Israel's destruction delivered from the comfort of their secure American sofas - it's hard to imagine anyone worse." When asked to clarify his views on J Street at the Saban Forum within the Brookings Institution, Friedman refused to walk back his accusations, calling the supporters of J Street "not Jewish, and they're not pro-Israel".
According to The Economist, "Friedman has called President Barack Obama an anti-Semite and spread the conspiracy theory that Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton, has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood." The publication has also described him as "an outspoken supporter of the Israeli far right".
Friedman has questioned the need for a two-state solution and endorses Israeli settlements and the annexation of parts of the West Bank."
Personal life
Friedman is an Orthodox Jew. His bar mitzvah was held at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. As of 2016, he had been married for 35 years to Tammy Sand of Miami Beach, Florida. He owns a house in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talbiya.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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