Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Illinois in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms. Emanuel was the White House chief of staff from 2009 to 2010 under President Barack Obama and served as mayor of Chicago from 2011 to 2019. He served as United States ambassador to Japan from 2022 to 2025.
Born in Chicago, Emanuel is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College (BA) and Northwestern University (MA). Early in his career, Emanuel served as director of the finance committee for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. In 1993, he joined the Clinton administration, where he served as assistant to the president for political affairs and as senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy. Emanuel worked at the investment bank Wasserstein Perella & Co. for two-and-a-half years and served on the board of directors of Freddie Mac. In 2002, he was elected to the congressional seat vacated by Rod Blagojevich, who had resigned to become governor of Illinois. Emanuel represented Illinois's 5th congressional district from 2003 to 2009. As chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, he oversaw Democratic wins in the 2006 House elections, allowing the party to gain control of the chamber for the first time since 1994. Following the 2008 U.S. presidential election, President Barack Obama appointed Emanuel to serve as White House chief of staff.
In October 2010, Emanuel resigned as chief of staff to run for mayor of Chicago in 2011. Emanuel won with 55% of the vote over five other candidates in the non-partisan election and was re-elected in 2015. In late 2015, Emanuel's approval rating plunged to "the low 20s" in response to a series of scandals. In October 2017, Emanuel announced that he planned to run for a third term, but stated in September 2018 that he had changed his mind. The Chicago Tribune assessed Emanuel's performance as mayor as "mixed", and at one point, a survey found that half of Chicagoans favored Emanuel's resignation. He left office in May 2019 and was succeeded by Lori Lightfoot.
In August 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Emanuel to be the United States Ambassador to Japan;Senate OKs ex-Obama aide Rahm Emanuel as US ambassador to Japan - The Mainichi (12/18/2021) he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December of that year. Emanuel stepped down from the ambassadorship in January 2025, shortly before Biden left office.
Early life and family
Emanuel's father, Benjamin M. Emanuel, was born in Jerusalem, where he was a member of the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine. He moved to the United States to work as a pediatrician at Michael Reese Hospital. The surname Emanuel (Hebrew: ) was adopted by their family in memory of Rahm's uncle (his father's brother) Emanuel Auerbach, who died of an infection after being hit by a stray bullet during a 1933 conflict between Arab protestors and the police in Mandatory Palestine.
Emanuel's maternal grandfather was a Moldovan Jew who emigrated from Bessarabia. His mother, Marsha (née Smulevitz), is the daughter of a West Side Chicago labor union organizer who worked in the civil rights movement. She briefly owned a local rock and roll club, and later became an adherent of Benjamin Spock's writings.
Emanuel's parents met during the 1950s in Chicago. Emanuel was born on November 29, 1959, in Chicago, Illinois. His first name, Rahm () means high or lofty in Hebrew. He has been described by his older brother Ezekiel, an oncologist and bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania, as "quiet and observant" as a child. Ari, his younger brother, is the CEO of Endeavor, an entertainment agency with headquarters in Beverly Hills, California. Emanuel also has a younger adopted sister, Shoshana.
Education and ballet dance Ezekiel Emanuel has written that his father "did not believe in falsely building his sons' self-esteem by purposefully letting us win, or tolerating sloppy play." About his brother Rahm, he also wrote:
While he lived in Chicago, Rahm Emanuel attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Lake View for elementary school. After his family moved to Wilmette, north of the city, Emanuel attended public schools: Romona School, Locust Junior High School, and New Trier High School. He and his brothers attended summer camp in Israel, including the summer following the June 1967 Six-Day War. While a high school student working part-time at an Arby's restaurant, Emanuel severely cut his right middle finger on a meat slicer, which was later infected from swimming in Lake Michigan. His finger was partially amputated due to the severity of the infection.
Emanuel was encouraged by his mother to take ballet lessons. He is a graduate of the Evanston School of Ballet, as well as a student of the Joel Hall Dance Center, where his children later took lessons. He won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, but turned it down to attend Sarah Lawrence College, a liberal arts school with a strong dance program. While an undergraduate, Emanuel was elected to the Sarah Lawrence Student Senate. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence in 1981 with a bachelor of arts in liberal arts, and went on to receive a master of arts in speech and communication from Northwestern University in 1985.
Emanuel took part in a two-week civilian volunteer holiday, known as the Sar-El, where, as a civilian volunteer, he assisted the Israel Defense Forces during the 1991 Gulf War, helping to repair truck brakes in one of Israel's northern bases.
Early career Emanuel began his political career with the public interest and consumer rights organization Illinois Public Action. He went on to serve in a number of capacities in local and national politics, initially specializing in fund-raising for Illinois campaigns, and then nationally. Emanuel worked for Democrat Paul Simon's 1984 election to the U.S. Senate. He also worked as the national campaign director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1988, and was senior advisor and chief fund-raiser for Richard M. Daley's successful initial campaign for mayor of Chicago, in 1989. He subsequently worked for Illinois Attorney General Neil Hartigan, conducting opposition research for his 1990 gubernatorial campaign.
At the start of then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's presidential primary campaign, Emanuel was appointed to direct the campaign's finance committee. Emanuel insisted that Clinton schedule time for fund-raising and delay campaigning in New Hampshire. Clinton embarked on an aggressive national fund-raising campaign that allowed the campaign to keep buying television time as attacks on Clinton's character threatened to swamp the campaign during the New Hampshire primary. Clinton's primary rival, Paul Tsongas (the New Hampshire Democratic primary winner), later withdrew, citing a lack of campaign funds. Richard Mintz, a Washington public relations consultant who worked with Emanuel on the campaign, spoke about the soundness of the idea: "It was that [extra] million dollars that really allowed the campaign to withstand the storm we had to ride out in New Hampshire [over Clinton's relationship with Gennifer Flowers and the controversy over his draft status during the Vietnam War]." Emanuel's knowledge of the top donors in the country, and his rapport with "heavily Jewish" donors helped Clinton amass a then-unheard-of sum of $72 million. While working on the Clinton campaign, Emanuel was paid a retainer by the investment bank Goldman Sachs.
Clinton administration
Following the campaign, Emanuel served as a senior advisor to Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998. In the White House, Emanuel was initially assistant to the president for political affairs and then senior advisor to the president for policy and strategy. He was a leading strategist in White House efforts to institute NAFTA, increased deportations of undocumented immigrants and the 1994 Crime Bill, among other Clinton initiatives.
Emanuel is known for his "take-no-prisoners style" that has earned him the nickname "Rahmbo." Emanuel sent a dead fish in a box to a pollster who was late delivering polling results. On the night after the 1992 election, angry at Democrats and Republicans who "betrayed" them in the 1992 election, Emanuel stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign and began plunging a steak knife into the table and began rattling off names while shouting "Dead! Dead! Dead!". Before Tony Blair gave a pro-Clinton speech during the impeachment crisis, Emanuel reportedly screamed at Blair "Don't fuck this up!" while Clinton was present. Blair and Clinton both burst into laughter. However, by 2007 friends of Emanuel were saying that he has "mellowed out". Stories of his personal style have entered the popular culture, inspiring articles and websites that chronicle these and other quotes and incidents. The character Josh Lyman in The West Wing was said to be based on Emanuel, though executive producer Lawrence O'Donnell denied this.
Finance After serving as an advisor to Bill Clinton, in 1998 Emanuel resigned from his position in the administration and joined the investment banking firm Wasserstein Perella, where he worked for 2.5 years. Although he did not have an MBA or prior banking experience, he became a managing director at the firm's Chicago office in 1999, and according to congressional disclosures, made $16.2 million in his 2.5 years as a banker. At Wasserstein Perella, he worked on eight deals, including the acquisition by Commonwealth Edison of Peco Energy and the purchase by GTCR Golder Rauner of the SecurityLink home security unit from SBC Communications.
Freddie Mac In 2000, Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors of Freddie Mac by President Clinton. He earned at least $320,000 during his time there, including later stock sales. During Emanuel's time on the board, Freddie Mac was plagued with scandals involving campaign contributions and accounting irregularities. The Bush administration rejected a request under the Freedom of Information Act to review Freddie Mac board minutes and correspondence during Emanuel's time as a director. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight later accused the board of having "failed in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention". Emanuel resigned from the board in 2001 before his first bid for Congress. During this time, he served on the Board of Commissioners of the Chicago Housing Authority.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections In 2002, Emanuel pursued the U.S. House seat in the 5th district of Illinois, previously held by Rod Blagojevich, who successfully ran for governor of Illinois. His strongest opponent in the crowded primary of eight was former Illinois state representative Nancy Kaszak. During the primary, Edward Moskal, president of the Polish American Congress, a political action committee endorsing Kaszak, called Emanuel a "millionaire carpetbagger". Emanuel won the primary and defeated Republican candidate Mark Augusti in the general election. Emanuel's inaugural election to the House with 67% was the closest he ever had for this seat, as he subsequently won more than 70% in all of his re-election bids.
Tenure
Emanuel was elected after the October 2002 joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War, and so did not vote on it. However, in the lead up to the resolution, Emanuel spoke out in support of the war.
In January 2003, Emanuel was named to the House Financial Services Committee and sat on the subcommittee that oversaw Freddie Mac. A few months later, Freddie Mac Chief Executive Officer Leland Brendsel was forced out and the committee and subcommittee commenced more than a year of hearings into Freddie Mac. Emanuel skipped every hearing allegedly for reasons of avoiding any appearance of favoritism, impropriety, or conflict of interest.