Michael Oren to join CNN
Former Israeli envoy was raised in West Orange
Michael Oren, the former Israeli ambassador to the United States, will be a contributor to CNN.
Raised in West Orange, the Middle East historian and analyst is the son of Marilyn and Lester Bornstein, longtime members of B’nai Shalom. Oren attended religious school at B’nai Shalom and had his bar mitzva at the Conservative synagogue. He took his first trip to Israel at 15, working on a kibbutz. He graduated from West Orange Mountain High School and earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia University before making aliya in 1979.
Oren returned to New Jersey later to earn a doctoral degree in Near East Studies from Princeton University in 1986. He stepped down as Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. in July 2013, after more than four years in the position.
“Michael will be joining CNN as a Middle East contributor,” a spokeswoman for Oren told JTA in a statement.
Oren now splits his time between Israel, where he lectures at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, and the United States, where he is a fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
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