Rahm Emanuel is the middle of three sons born to a Jerusalem-born pediatrician father and an X-ray technician mother. Both parents were political activists, and their home by all accounts was lively.
Three articulate, ambitious boys — Ezekiel, Rahm and Ari — along with adopted little sister Shoshana, learned from their parents to glean as much from failure as success. The boys all grew into exceptionally successful adults. But not right away.
“If you had looked at us in grade school and high school, you would not have predicted our success,” Ezekiel, or “Zeke,” Emanuel said when all three brothers appeared recently on a roundtable with broadcaster Charlie Rose.
Ezekiel, 51, is the oldest. He is director of the Bioethics Department at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, has a Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard and recently wrote a book on how to solve the nation’s health care crisis.
Soon-to-be White House chief of staff Rahm, 49, has been a Clinton administration staffer, an investment banker and a three-term member of Congress.
Ari, 47, the youngest of the three, is co-founding partner of the Endeavour Agency, a talent firm in Hollywood with a client list that includes Aaron Sorkin, Sacha Baron Cohen and Martin Scorsese.
Ari also inspired the unforgettably rapacious character of Ari Gold on HBO’s “Entourage.”
All three credit their parents, Benjamin and Marsha, for giving them a foundation of family closeness that was also a launching pad for their high-profile careers.
“I wouldn’t say we were competitive,” Rahm told Rose. “If anything it was our ability to learn from failing.”
Last month, when Obama tapped him to be his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel told reporters he was happy his parents had a chance to see it happen.
“My parents are alive to see their middle son have a choice in his career between being a congressman with one chance, one opportunity down the road, of maybe rising in the leadership, and being the chief of staff to a historic presidency at a historic time. I’m very fortunate that my parents are alive to see that.”
– Julie Mason
