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December 13, 2002/Tevet 8 5763, Vol. 55, No. 16
Abrams named new Middle East director
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - When Jewish leaders plan their first meeting with the National Security Council's new director for the Middle East, there will be little need for introduction: The American Jewish world knows Elliott Abrams and Abrams knows them.
Named last week as the NSC's senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs, Abrams is a familiar face in the Jewish world for his work on Soviet Jewry and issues of international religious freedom.
Abrams, 54, also made headlines for pleading guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress as part of the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration.
But he may be best known to Jewish leaders as an opponent of Jewish secularism, primarily in his book "Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in Christian America," published in 1997.
The book's thesis was that American Jews must return to their religious faith to combat their shrinking numbers.
His political work began in the 1970s for two Democratic U.S. senators. He later joined the Reagan administration as assistant secretary of state for international organizational affairs.
As the Reagan admini-stration's Latin American envoy, Abrams was considered the chief advocate of military support for the Nicaraguan Contras, despite a ban on aid to the group.
Abrams worked with Jewish leaders on Soviet Jewry issues while in humanitarian affairs, on issues regarding Israel and the United Nations during his tenure in the international organizations branch, and in promoting Jewish communities in South and Central America during while in the Office of Inter-American Affairs.
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