Obama backer gets second term as Holocaust memorial chair

Tom Bernstein had switched allegiances to Democratic candidate after supporting Bush in 2000 and 2004

By JTA 4 December 2015, 9:22 pm

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Tom Bernstein speaks at the National Days of Remembrance ceremony at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC on May 17, 2011 (screen capture: YouTube)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has named a major backer of his presidential campaigns to a second term chairing the US Holocaust Memorial Council.

Obama on Thursday announced his decision to name Tom Bernstein to a second five-year term. Bernstein is the president of Chelsea Piers, the Manhattan sports and entertainment complex, and the vice chairman of Human Rights First, a watchdog group.

Bernstein co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team with George W. Bush in the early 1990s and supported Bush’s campaigns for the presidency in 2000 and 2004.

Bernstein was among a small group of big-name Republican donors who switched parties to support Obama after he announced his candidacy in 2007. Obama first named him chairman in 2010.

Obama named as vice-chairman of the council, which administers the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, Allan Holt, a senior partner at The Carlyle Group, a major lobbying shop. Holt had been named to the council board in 2014.