Joel Pollak

Personal life

Pollak was born to an Orthodox Jewish family in Johannesburg, South Africa. His parents moved to the United States in 1977 and became United States citizens in 1987. He grew up in the Chicago suburbs, principally in Skokie. He attended Solomon Schechter Day School and Niles North High School, where he was the class valedictorian in 1995. Pollak attended Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude in 1999 with a joint degree in Social Studies and Environmental Science & Public Policy (ESPP). He earned a master's degree in Jewish Studies from the University of Cape Town in 2006. From 2002 to 2006 he was chief speechwriter for Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, and is a family friend of Leon's successor Helen Zille. He then enrolled at Harvard Law School. He married Julia Inge Pollak (née Bertelsmann) in December 2009. They have a daughter named Maya (b. February 1, 2012).

Career

In 2010 Pollak was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress from Illinois's 9th congressional district, challenging incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky, whom he had voted for while still a Democrat (prior to 2006).

He lost, garnering 31.1% of the votes to Schakowsy's 66.3%.

Pollak was endorsed by the Chicago Tea Party and refers to himself as a Tea Party Republican.

Breitbart News

After losing the election, Pollak was asked by Andrew Breitbart to become in-house counsel at his Breitbart.com websites, and Pollak moved to California. He later became editor-in-chief of the website.

After Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields alleged she was attacked by Donald Trump presidential campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, leaked internal memos showed that Pollak ordered staffers to stop defending Fields.

Pollak also posted a lengthy article to the website questioning Fields's account of the incident. Fields and fellow editor Ben Shapiro resigned over the incident, and questioned the site's support of Trump.

Publications

Pollak’s first book, The Kasrils Affair: Jews and Minority Politics in the New South Africa (Double Storey, 2009), is based on his master’s thesis and uses debates involving the Jewish community, particularly Ronnie Kasrils, as a window onto minority politics in general in post-apartheid South Africa. His second book, Don’t Tell Me Words Don’t Matter: How Rhetoric Won the 2008 Presidential Election (HC Press, 2009) is self-published and describes the role played by speeches in Barack Obama’s victory over John McCain. Pollak's third book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths The Left Can't Handle, was released in 2016. He coauthored How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution with Larry Schweikart in 2017.

Pollak has written numerous op-eds and articles. While in law school, he wrote for the Harvard Law Record and alleged on his blog that Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat faked his blood donation for the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.