WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Obama named Eric Schwartz, a dean at the University of Minnesota, to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Schwartz, who is on the boards of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, was among several appointees announced Thursday.
Schwartz is the dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and previously served for two years as assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.
He also served as the U.N. secretary general’s deputy special envoy for tsunami recovery from 2005 to 2007. Schwartz was chief of office in Geneva for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent body that tracks religious freedoms oveseas, has members appointed by leadership in both houses of Congress and by the president.
