President Donald Trump has appointed Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, to the White House Religious Liberty Commission’s new Religious Leaders Advisory Board. The appointment follows an executive order signed by the president earlier this month establishing the Religious Liberty Commission, aimed at promoting and protecting religious freedom across the United States. The commission will be supported by three advisory boards made up of religious leaders, legal scholars, and lay experts. Three other Orthodox Jews were also appointed along with Rabbi Zwiebel: Mark Gottlieb, chief education officer of the Tikvah Fund; Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, the largest rabbinic public policy organization in the US; and Eitan Webb, co-founder of the Chabad House of Princeton in 2002 and a chaplain at the university. Rabbi Zwiebel’s appointment places him among a select group of 11 religious leaders from across the country who will advise the administration on issues related to religious liberty, public policy, and faith-based rights. As a longtime leader of Agudath Israel, Rabbi Zwiebel brings decades of experience advocating for religious communities on issues ranging from education and civil liberties to religious accommodations in the workplace and public life. Before joining Agudath Israel in a professional capacity, Rabbi Zwiebel worked for 30 years at a private law firm. The advisory board’s formation comes at a time of renewed national focus on religious expression, with President Trump stating in his executive order that Americans must be “reacquainted with our nation’s superb experiment in religious freedom in order to preserve it against emerging threats.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)