Elliot Jager

Biography

Jager was born and raised on New York City's Lower East Side. His father was a Rumanian-born Holocaust survivor who left for Israel when Jager was eight. Raised by his mother Yvette, Jager received a strictly Orthodox Jewish education at Yeshiva Chasam Sofer and Mesiftha Tiffereth Jerusalem. He obtained a BA in Judaic Studies (cum laude) from Brooklyn College in 1977, and completed his MA (1988) and Ph.D (1994) in political science at New York University. He worked for the New York City Department of Health from 1973 until 1997 while attending college and university in the evening. Jager headed the control unit of the agency's lead poisoning program and was office services director for the bureau of operations before he left the agency. From 1984 until 1997 he regularly taught political science as an adjunct visiting professor at NYU, Baruch-CUNY, Hofstra and Rutgers. In 1997, Jager moved to Israel where he met his wife, Lisa Clayton, a writer and editor.

Dissertation

Jager's dissertation, examined the activities of the organized American Jewish community in regard to the 1988 decision by the United States to enter into a diplomatic dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization. In 2015, Jager made the dissertation available in a digital form under the title "Leverage: How U.S. Presidents Use the American Jewish Community to Pressure Israel".

Journalistic and literary career

Between 1997 and 1999 Jager was a contributor to The Connecticut Jewish Ledger and The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. He joined the staff of The Jerusalem Post in 1999 holding various editorial positions at the paper including literary editor, week-in-review editor, op-ed editor, and— taking over from Saul Singer—editorial page editor reporting to editor-in-chief David Horovitz. Jager left the Post to become the founding managing editor of Jewish Ideas Daily (now Mosaic). He became a freelance writer in 2013 contributing regularly to such outlets as Newsmax and Israel My Glory magazine. In November 2015, The Toby Press published Jager's memoir, The Pater: My Father, My Judaism, My Childlessness, which is arguably the first meditation by a Jewish man on what it means to be childless written from the perspective of Jewish civilization. The book has been favorably received in Haaretz, The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Commentary, Huffington Post, Jewish News Service and referenced in various other outlets including Tablet, Mosaic, Contact, and the NY Jewish Week.

Political activism

Jager became a community activist in high-school serving as a fixer for Paul Cowan whose exposé series in The Village Voice called attention to the neglected plight of New York City's 10,000 elderly Jewish poor. In 1969, he was appointed deputy lower Manhattan youth coordinator of the Jewish Defense League under the late Eugene Singer. In 1973, he co-founded with William Rapfogel Lower East Side People newspaper. Jager went on to serve on the boards of Americans for a Safe Israel, the Manhattan Region of the Zionist Organization of America, and became advertising director of the Coalition for Israel.