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Keystone Strategy + Advocacy |   Ari Mittleman, Founder

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Keystone Strategy + Advocacy |   Ari Mittleman, Founder

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Ari Mittleman, Founder

Over the course of more than eight years, Ari held various senior roles with Senator Bob Casey, Jr., a pragmatic foreign policy leader. Upon his departure, Senator Casey stated, "From day one, Ari played a critical role in my 2006 election. He and I have traveled tens of thousands of miles together domestically and abroad. He has done great work on my behalf. As a native Pennsylvanian, I look forward to his future success."

Using skills perfected on the American campaign trail, he now assists international clients with best practices for engaging key American stakeholders to run the most effective campaigns. Congressional foreign policy leaders and international reporters regularly seek his counsel. Ari has built deep personal and professional relationships with business, government and community leaders across Pennsylvania and across the United States. He understands the nexus of politics, policy and the press.

Ari is self taught and conversant in Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. He has a deep understanding of the Balkan reconstruction and reconciliation process having lived and worked in the region. Ari formally studied Hebrew for nine years.

He graduated Cum Laude with Honors from the George Washington University and obtained a Masters in Public Administration from the Fels Institute of Government of the University of Pennsylvania. He was founding board chairman of the award winning St. Bernard Project in Chalmette, Louisiana.

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Over the course of more than eight years, Ari held various senior roles with Senator Bob Casey, Jr., a pragmatic foreign policy leader. Upon his departure, Senator Casey stated, "From day one, Ari played a critical role in my 2006 election. He and I have traveled tens of thousands of miles together domestically and abroad.

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Ari Mittleman | The Daily Caller, The Morning Call, Baltimore Jewish Times Journalist | Muck Rack

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Find Ari Mittleman's articles, email address, contact information, Twitter and more

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Your View: After Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, perhaps nation can embrace bipartisan unity - The Morning Call

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Your View: After Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, perhaps nation can embrace bipartisan unity - The Morning Call

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For many in eastern Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh might as well be a different state. Growing up in the Lehigh Valley, I never traveled to Pittsburgh or met peers from their Jewish community until I was in the working world.

Regardless of geographic distances, the tragedy at Tree of Life synagogue hit very close to home. Indeed, a central precept of Judaism first debated more than 1,500 years ago by rabbis living in the diverse Babylonian Empire translates to "all Israel is responsible for one another." The anecdotes the world has read about the lives lost remind us that this was a community in every sense of the word, regardless of different backgrounds and beliefs.

Like all Americans, I have reflected on what faith and community mean in our country today. I have spent the last week, like many Jewish Americans, in emotional conversations with friends and family.

Regardless of political party or faith, all Americans can relate to Psalm 34, recited last Saturday in Las Vegas by Vice President Mike Pence: "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted."

In reflecting over the last week, I take greater solace in Psalm 133: "How good and how pleasant it is when brothers sit together in unity!"

Indeed, the Lehigh Valley and communities across the United States witnessed just this. Everyday Americans paused their daily evening routines to come together for interfaith vigils and memorial services. Many candidates joined these and paused their campaigning.

There is no word for "coincidence" in Biblical Hebrew. This end of this historic election cycle coincides with the conclusion of the shiva mourning period which follows every Jewish burial.

During the 2014 midterm elections, more than $3.8 billion was spent. By all accounts, when the dust settles after Tuesday, spending this year will shatter that record. The largest driver of any 2018 campaign budget is paid advertisements. Ads, many negative and many with varying levels of veracity, generally have tried to illuminate differences between the candidates and have assaulted opponents' characters or records.

A fellow Pennsylvanian, John Dickinson, helped draft the Constitution, which both united a nation arguably as fractured as America is today and, for all purposes, created the Congress that we know today.

If the annual Forbes List existed in the 18th century, Dickinson would have been at the top. He used his wealth, to inspire.

Indeed, if iTunes existed in Colonial times, "The Liberty Song," which he drafted and promoted, would have been on every play list from Savannah, Ga., to Boston and heard in pubs in Moravian Bethlehem or around the campfires in the wilderness around Fort Pitt.

As this divisive election season comes to a close, the song's most famous line is worth repeating: "by uniting we stand, by dividing we fall."

This January, the 116th Congress will be sworn in and our nation's elected representatives from backgrounds more diverse than ever before in our history will continue a 230-year tradition. This peaceful transition every two years is without equal across the world.

Before multimillion-dollar congressional campaign budgets focused primarily on half-truths and character assaults, the architect of the Capitol engraved 23 marble relief portraits following World War II. These lawgivers stare down on our elected representatives and depict historical figures who devoted their lives to promoting the principles that underlie America.

Looking down on Congress each day, but certainly this January, will be Maimonides, the 12th-century Jewish doctor and philosopher who lived side by side with Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim neighbors. In his seminal work, "The Guide for the Perplexed," he devotes Chapter 26 to what the essence of laws must be. He suggests that "the improvement of our social relations" is critical for all in a position of power.

After Election Day, our elected representatives should endeavor to remember the wisdom of Dickinson and Maimonides.

Indeed, in Judaism, after the shiva period, we say of the deceased, "May his memory be for a blessing." More bipartisan unity and less division in Washington would be such a blessing.
Ari Mittleman, originally from South Whitehall Township, is a graduate of the Jewish Day School of the Lehigh Valley. He now resides in the Washington, D.C., area and is the founder of Keystone Strategy + Advocacy.

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Your View: After Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, perhaps nation can embrace bipartisan unity

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Regardless of geographic distances, the tragedy at Tree of Life synagogue hit very close to home. Indeed, a central precept of Judaism first debated over 1,500 years ago by rabbis living in the diverse Babylonian Empire translates to "all Israel is responsible for one another."

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'Finish strong' to rebuild New Orleans - CNN.com

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'Finish strong' to rebuild New Orleans - CNN.com

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Editor's note: Five years after Hurricane Katrina, see how three extraordinary CNN Heroes are determined to bring New Orleans back: "CNN Heroes: Coming Back from Katrina," hosted by Anderson Cooper, at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday on CNN. Liz McCartney was the 2008 CNN Hero of the Year. She and Zack Rosenburg are co-founders of the St. Bernard Project, a nonprofit organization to "create housing opportunities so that Hurricane Katrina survivors can return to their homes and communities."
New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- When we started thinking about the contents of this piece, our first thought was to highlight all of the progress, accomplishments and successes that the St. Bernard Project has achieved since Katrina.

We thought of numbers: 302 -- the number of homes that the St. Bernard Project has rebuilt; 85 -- the number of residents who utilize our free evidenced-based clinical services at our Center for Wellness and Mental Health each week.

We thought of all of those who have made it possible: 25,000 volunteers; nearly 1,000 AmeriCorps members; companies like Entergy, Patron Tequila, KPMG, GE and United Way, and citizens like Ari Mittleman, who has made 20 volunteer trips over the past four years, and the Solon family from Massachusetts, who has raised enough funds to move three families home and who spent the summer volunteering with the project.

Then, we remembered Mr. Andre, an 82-year old St. Bernard Parish resident who was a World War II veteran and who, when we met him six months after Katrina was still sleeping each night in his Ford Ranger pickup while waiting for a FEMA trailer that he would not receive for another six weeks.

As we were saying goodbye to Mr. Andre, he made a simple request: "Don't forget us. We want to come home. We all want to come home." When we thought about Mr. Andre, we realized a few things: First, the St. Bernard Project's successes are dwarfed by the progress that the greater New Orleans area has made. Second, despite the progress, significant work is left.

The New Orleans area is a wonderful place to live, and the city is, in many ways, thriving. Families are reuniting, neighborhoods are being restored, and there is a shared sense of pride in the region's resilience.

In Mayor Mitch Landrieu, we have a leader who is committed to uniting the city and bringing to government the true character of New Orleans' residents: inclusion, hard work and problem solving.

An entrepreneurial movement is surging through the city, led by GNO Inc., Tulane University and Idea Village. Thanks to New Schools for New Orleans, there are dozens of highly effective charter schools, like Akili Academy, and because of a revitalized public school board, the chances are much better that children will receive the education that they deserve.

Nearly five years after Katrina, we need to celebrate success, but we also need to honor Mr. Andre's request. We can not forget the people who are not yet home. All of the above-mentioned successes are great, but they mean less to American families who are still waiting to move home.

Today, nearly 900 families who own homes are still living in FEMA trailers. More than 6,000 families own homes that they can not afford to rebuild.

Rental prices have risen so that 49 percent of the population cannot afford the average cost of a home to rent. All too many family-centered neighborhoods now are pocked with blighted houses or vacant lots. As much as we would all like it to be, the recovery is not complete.

That is where Saints quarterback Drew Breese and his war cry come in. To keep our pledge to Mr. Andre, all stakeholders -- Louisiana citizens, volunteers from around the world, corporations and local, state and federal government -- need to follow the command Breese made to his fellow Saints late last football season and "finish strong."

In football, finishing strong means playing hard through all four quarters and through every game of the season. In Louisiana's recovery, finishing strong means:

* Governmental leadership that makes decisions that impact residents in ways that the leaders would want their own families to be impacted.

* Creating schools so that our community members' children are educated the way that we would want our children to be educated.

* Americans and corporations not viewing community as being limited by proximity and instead, like the hundreds of thousands of volunteers, working hard to help American families rebuild their homes.

* Understanding that the recovery is not complete until all residents are back in safe and humane homes.

By following Breese's command, the Saints won the Super Bowl. By remembering Mr. Andre's words and by listening to Breese, we can win the recovery.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the co-authors.

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Editor's note: Five years after Hurricane Katrina, see how three extraordinary CNN Heroes are determined to bring New Orleans back: "CNN Heroes: Coming Back from Katrina," hosted by Anderson Cooper, at 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday on CNN. Liz McCartney was the 2008 CNN Hero of the Year.