Making Aliyah Podcast: Ambassador Michael Oren

In this episode, Rabbi Cohen interviews Ambassador Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States, about his aliyah journey.

Hon. Michael B. Oren

Michael B. Oren served as Israel's ambassador to the United States from 2009 to 2013.

As Ambassador, he was instrumental in securing U.S. support for Israel’s defense and upholding Israel’s right to security and peace. The Forward named Ambassador Oren one of the five most influential Jews in America and the Jerusalem Post listed him as one of the ten most influential Jews worldwide.

Born in the United States and educated at Princeton and Columbia, Dr. Oren has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and Georgetown, and was a Distinguished Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He has received fellowships from the British and Canadian governments as well as a Moshe Dayan Fellowship from Tel Aviv University and the Lady Davis Fellowship at the Hebrew University. His last two books, Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East from 1776 to the Present and Six Days of War, were both New York Times bestsellers. He has won the Los Angeles Times History Book of the Year Award and the National Jewish Book Award. 

In Israel, Ambassador Oren served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, in the paratroopers in the Lebanon War, a liaison with the U.S. Sixth Fleet during the Gulf War, and an IDF spokesman during the Second Lebanon War and the Gaza operation in January 2009. He acted as an emissary to Jewish refuseniks in the Soviet Union, as an advisor to Israel's delegation to the United Nations, and as the government's director of Inter-Religious Affairs. He was a gold medal-winning athlete in the Maccabiah Games.

Ambassador Oren and his wife, Sally, have three children.