Evan S. Dobelle, whose grandparents on both sides were Jewish emigrants from Lithuania, is the new Chief of Protocol at the State Department with responsibilities which include being host to all foreign dignitaries to the White House. Dobelle, 31, has served twice as the Mayor of Pittsfield, Mass. and has taught government at Harvard, the University of Massachusetts and California State University at Los Angeles.
Although a Republican who was serving as Commissioner of Environmental Management in Boston, President Carter tapped Dobelle for the protocol post vacated by Ambassador Shirley Temple Black. Dobelle and his wife became close friends of President and Mrs. Carter during the election campaign.
Dobelle told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he had his Bar Mitzvah in 1958 at Temple Israel in West Palm Beach, Fla., and was president from 1974-76 of the Adullam Lodge of B’nai B’rith in Pittsfield. His first major assignment will be to welcome Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo, when he comes to Washington next week to visit Carter.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
