WASHINGTON - Today, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to serve in key roles:
- Mohamed Hag Magid, Commissioner, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
- Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
- Michael Lozman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
- Roselyne Chroman Swig, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
- Lesley Weiss, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government commission created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act that monitors the universal right to freedom of religion or belief abroad. USCIRF uses international standards to monitor religious freedom violations globally, and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress. USCIRF Commissioners are appointed by the President and Congressional leaders of both political parties.
Mohamed Hag Magid, Commissioner, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
Imam Mohamed Magid is the Executive Religious Director of All Dulles Area Muslim Society Center in Sterling, Virginia. He is the Chairman of International Interfaith Peace Corps and the former President of the Islamic Society of North America. He serves on the advisory board of the Peaceful Families Project and as Co-President of Religions for Peace. Magid is also the Co-Founder of the Multifaith Neighborhood Network, which focuses on building bridges between Muslim, Evangelical Christian, and Jewish communities.
His main focuses are promoting religious freedom, preventing violence against women, and preventing violence and hate in our societies. Magid works with The United Nations Development Programme in training Imams to deal with violence and extremism against religious minorities in East and West Africa.
United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
The U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad was established in 1985 to ensure that sites important to populations impacted by Nazism, communism, and the Cold War would be preserved for future generations. The Commission's mission is to identify, protect, and preserve cemeteries, monuments, and historic buildings in Eastern and Central Europe that are associated with U.S. heritage. The work recognizes that the population of the United States is mostly comprised of immigrants and their descendants, and that the United States has an interest in the preservation of sites in other countries related to the heritage of these Americans.
Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
Elizabeth (Liz) Hirsh Naftali runs and owns a commercial real estate company in Los Angeles' Fashion District. She has served on the board of Oakwood School in North Hollywood since 2002 and was the Board Chair from 2012 to 2015. She also currently serves on the board of the IKAR Shul in Los Angeles and the RAND Corporation Center for Middle East Public Policy.
In 2007, Hirsh Naftali developed BIG Giving, a philanthropic branch of the company she co-founded, BIG Shopping Centers, that primarily supports educational, developmental, and co-existence programs for Jewish and Arab children across Israel. She remains active in her philanthropy in Israel working with the Tel Aviv Foundation and Babylonian Jewry Museum. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, Hirsh Naftali started the Make More Masks Campaign, producing and distributing over 100,000 masks to keep those most vulnerable in our communities safe.
Michael Lozman, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
Dr. Michael Lozman is a practicing orthodontist in Latham, New York. He has taught in the Graduate Department of Orthodontics at New York University School of Dentistry and has served in numerous professional leadership positions including on the Board of Governors of the New York State Dental Society and as President of the New York State Society of Orthodontics.
In 2001, Lozman founded an organization to bring college students to Eastern Europe to restore Jewish cemeteries that were destroyed during the Nazi era. To date, the organization has completed the restoration of fifteen Jewish cemeteries, ten in Belarus and five in Lithuania. Lozman also founded the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial, Inc. and is working to develop a Holocaust memorial in the capital area of New York. Lozman has lectured in several countries, and he has been noted for his Holocaust educational activities.
Roselyne Chroman Swig, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
Roselyne Chroman Swig is Founder and President of ComCon International, as well as Founder of Roselyne C. Swig Artsource. She was appointed Director of the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies Program by President Clinton. Swig has devoted decades to philanthropic and community service efforts at the local, national, and global levels with a focus on women's empowerment, social welfare, fine art, political advocacy, and education. She is Founder of the advocacy group Partners Ending Domestic Abuse and Founder and Member of Bayview Alliance.
Swig is National V.P. Emeritus of AIPAC, Lifetime Trustee of Shalom Hartman Institute, and Trustee Emeritus at Mills College. She served as President and Trustee Emeritus of SF Art Institute, President of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, Chair of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, President Emeritus of Jewish Community Federation of SF Peninsula, Marin, and Sonoma Counties, President of SF Arts Commission, and Co-Chair of the National Gallery of Art Collector's Committee, among others.
Lesley Weiss, Commission Member, United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad
Lesley Weiss is Deputy Director of the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry. In this role, she coordinates democracy initiatives, community education and outreach efforts, and promotes advocacy on behalf of Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. She monitors compliance by the governments of the region in the areas of religious and cultural rights and works closely with the governments and the Jewish communities on the restitution and preservation of Jewish communal property, combating anti-Semitism, and Holocaust awareness. Weiss represents the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry at Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe meetings and numerous other international conferences throughout Europe, Central Asia, and Israel on the Holocaust, anti-Semitism, and international religious freedom.
Weiss is also a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In 2013, President Obama appointed Weiss Chair of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, where she served until 2017.