Editor's Notes: The man who decides which Jews the president hears - comment

The striking question is not why six rabbis were invited to the Oval Office before Rosh Hashanah, but who chose them. Martin Marks, the White House special assistant and director of Jewish engagement, personally made the calls and spent months arranging the delegation, according to Belaaz.

Marks, 43, has an unusual route into the role. He is the son of Lana Marks, the handbag designer who served as US ambassador to South Africa during Donald Trump’s first term. The Marks family has belonged to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for decades, after joining when other Palm Beach private clubs would not accept Jews.

His own career has moved through writing, politics and yoga rather than the established American Jewish organizations. He studied writing seminars and Near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University, earned a master of fine arts degree at New York University, wrote humor for The New Yorker, contributed to Vanity Fair and The Wall Street Journal, and served as editor-at-large at The New York Observer.

After a spinal condition and about a dozen operations, Marks trained as a yoga instructor and opened a studio in Palm Beach. He later sought a Florida congressional seat, withdrew after redistricting changed the district, and ran Jewish outreach for Trump’s 2024 campaign.

That distance from federations, advocacy groups and denominational bodies may mean Marks lacks their institutional reflexes. It may also explain his appointment. Nathan Diament of the Orthodox Union credited him with restoring security grants for synagogues and community centers. Marks also placed a Jewish student suing Harvard on the Republican convention stage and organized Trump’s visit to the Ohel on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 massacre. The commentary concludes that the delegation reflects Marks’s influence over which Jewish voices reach the president.