Staff writer

Several local Jews are already in the mix, but Team Obama is likely to tap even more players from that pool for the incoming presidential administration, according to Democratic observers.

"This is an exciting time for the community," said political strategist Steve Rabinowitz of the District-based public relations outfit Rabinowitz/Dorf Communications. "It's like after eight years, we're back."

Rabinowitz should know. His firm collectively has "the biggest Jewish Rolodex in Washington, D.C.," according to Hadar Susskind, Washington director for the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, another local with strong links to those within Obama's transition team.

The roster of influential local Jews ranges from informal advisers who have the ear of insiders in the Obama camp to Democratic operatives who reportedly are being considered for positions in the new administration.

"There are people all over our community who have been in government ... who are involved in the transition in different ways," said Bethesda's Susan Turnbull, the Democratic National Committee's vice chair. Turnbull was also named as a someone likely to be used as an adviser for Obama's transition team.

The individual best poised to affect Jewish policy and community dialogue in the Obama White House would be the administration's Jewish liaison, who is responsible for briefing the president on issues important to the Jewish community.

Among the prospective candidates for that post are several Jews with local connections of varying depths, according to those familiar with the process.

They include Josh Kram, a former Jewish coordinator for Hillary Clinton who later ran Obama's Jewish outreach in Virginia; Eric Lynn, an Obama foreign policy adviser who served as a top Jewish coordinator during the campaign; and Mira Kogen Resnick, who served as Rep. Ron Klein's (D-Fla.) legislative director.

"Someone like Mira [Resnick] would do very well" in coordinating Jewish outreach, said a Jewish Democrat familiar with the process.

Resnick is a graduate of New York City's Columbia University, majoring in political science, and also has a bachelor's degree in Israel studies from the Jewish Theological Seminary, also in New York. (Her father-in-law, Steve, is a well-known Judaic artist living in Silver Spring.)

As to Lynn and Kram, Susskind said they are "excellent people, who represented the campaign very well." Kram, who lives in Northern Virginia, and Lynn shared an apartment together in 1998 while serving as summer interns at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Other observers touted the two, as well. "I would be surprised if they [both] weren't in the administration," one Jewish Democratic operative said.

Another Democratic insider said Kram's position is unclear due to his long ties to Clinton -- which may be noteworthy, given Obama's numerous references to President Abraham Lincoln's formulation of a broad-based "coalition of rivals."

Those close to Clinton "are generally not" at the top of Obama's list of would-be appointees, the insider said, pointing out that, partisan differences aside, the pre-Inauguration Day political guessing game is rife with rumor, uncertainty and rank speculation.

"Everybody is in limbo right now," the source explained. "Anyone who hasn't been named yet, even people on the transition committee, are wondering what their fate is [and] people who are further down the food chain, they're totally in limbo."

Barbara Goldberg, a Democratic activist from Potomac who worked with both Kram and Lynn during the campaign, said that each would be a great pick for liaison and cited their "huge efforts" in delivering 78 percent of the Jewish vote to Obama.

The prospective candidates themselves refused to comment or could not be reached for comment.

Obama has already selected high-profile Jewish D.C. mainstay Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as his chief of staff, while Democratically connected Washington lawyer Ron Klain will serve as chief of staff for Vice President Joseph Biden.

Each is a prominent Jew with a long history in government, but most observers are unsure just how they will affect the Jewish dialogue inside the administration.

Though Emanuel, for example, has "immense knowledge of the Jewish community," his role as chief of staff -- normally a nuts-and-bolts-oriented position -- would preclude him from viewing the job strictly from a Jewish perspective, according to Catholic University law professor Marshall Breger, who served as President Ronald Reagan's Jewish liaison.

Another politico, however, said that for someone as connected to Jewish life as Emanuel is, Judaism "affects everything you do."

Local Jews also have been mentioned in connection with foreign policy-related work, including potential State Department positions.

They include longtime Democratic Capitol Hill operative Dan Shapiro, a senior policy adviser to Obama during the campaign and its Jewish outreach director; federal government veteran James Steinberg, a deputy national security adviser under former President Bill Clinton, who was named last week to Obama's transition team; and longtime Washington-area resident Dennis Ross, Clinton's top Middle East envoy, who acted as a vocal surrogate for Obama during the election. Ross is a member of Kol Shalom in Bethesda.

All those interviewed praised this group, hailing it as well-equipped to deal with foreign policy and national security matters. Though Shapiro, a District resident and member of Adas Israel Congregation in D.C., was also mentioned as a potential candidate for the Jewish liaison position, insiders said it is more likely he will join the administration in a foreign policy role, possibly at the National Security Council or in a related post.

"Shapiro came in as a senior Middle East policy adviser ... and is incredibly grounded in the local Jewish community," Susskind said, adding that "whatever position he takes in the administration, he will do the D.C. Jewish community proud."

There's also buzz that Obama might tap D.C. businessman Julius Genachowski, who's already been named to Obama's transition team, as chief technology adviser in what would be a new Cabinet-level position. Insiders also say that Genachowski, whose children attend Gan HaYeled, the preschool at Adas Israel Congregation in the District, could be in line to chair the Federal Communications Committee, as he was a former legal counsel to ex-FCC chair Reed Hundt.

As for Obama's legal counsel, insiders say Jonathan Meyer, a former top adviser for Biden, could wind up on staff. Meyer lives in Chevy Chase and is an active member at Adas Israel, where he serves on several committees. He also is on the board at the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation's Capital, the school his three children attend.

Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, pointed out that American Jews "are the most highly politicized ethnic-religious group in the country -- a disproportionate number of us are involved in the public policy arena." Because of this, "it is not unusual that a significant numbers of Jewish Americans are among President-elect Obama's senior appointments," he said, adding that Obama is not picking staffers solely because they are Jewish.

Other prominent local Jews were said to have the ear of the next administration, regardless of whether they are in the running for government posts.

They include high-profile indviduals such as Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, who gave the invocation speech at this year's Democratic National Convention in Denver; Rabbi Jack Moline of Conservative Agudas Achim Congregation in Alexandria, who campaigned heavily for Obama and reportedly has close ties to Emanuel; the DNC's Turnbull; Rabinowitz and his business partner, Matt Dorf, a DNC consultant; and Nathan Diament, the D.C.-based director of public policy for the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, who was friendly with Obama during their days at Harvard University's law school.

Each is in a position to access the administration and potentially shape the Jewish dialogue from within. They either could not be reached or declined comment on their relationship to the Obama White House.

Observers hailed Saperstein as a politically savvy and well-recognized moral voice in the Jewish community, who, according to Susskind, "has long been considered first among us in terms of Jewish advocates." Others put Moline in a similar category.

On Diament, who is a member of Silver Spring's Kemp Mill Synagogue, Susskind said that he "is certainly well-positioned to have a lot of people take his calls in the new administration."

Rabinowitz would not comment on his potential role in the next administration, but said, "If a few of us uniquely enjoy some more relationships than others, whatever, it's not something I'm trying to make money on. We all just want to be happy for our friends that are on the inside and maybe get an extra inaugural ticket."