Rebekah Sharansky

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**Rebekah Sharansky** (born January 6, 1970) is an American politician who served as the junior Senator from Illinois January 3, 2017, to June 28, 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, she was elected to the Senate seat after serving as Illinois Attorney General for four years and as a state Senator for six-year prior. Sharansky was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois. Her parents are both Israeli, and she was raised a Conservative Jew. She graduated with her B.A. from Brown in 1992 and received her J.D. from Boston University in 1995. Although initially known as a centrist Democrat with positions rooted in the law and moderatism, her positions have shifted to the left during her Senate tenure. She has been outspoken on sexual assault and harassment and was widely paid attention to during her tough line of questioning at Kavanaugh's Senate trial.

Sharansky was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020, but opted to stay out in favor of backing Senator Tim Westra's bid instead.

Sharansky resigned from the Senate in late June of 2019 due to an investigation launched by the Department of Justice into Congressional Ethics.

## Early Life and Education

The Sharansky family were immigrants from Israel. Rebekah's mother, an Israeli Arab Jew, was a professor of biology at the Weizmann Institute in Israel, while her father (whose family were Russian Jews) was a general practitioner in Tel Aviv. Her family immigrated to the United States in 1969, when her mother was offered a position by Northwestern University.

Sharansky was born in 1970, the third child of six children. She was often not paid much attention to; she attended her local public school in Evanston. Sharansky was raised as a devout Conservative Jew, and was particularly close to her eldest two sisters, Deborah and Elizabeth. Deborah started to study law at UChicago in 1990, when Sharansky was finishing school, while Elizabeth finished college in 1988 having majored in political science; she soon started working as a press coordinator for the mayor of Chicago.

Sharansky discovered her talents early on while participating in school plays. She became an active theater participant, and became well known in her school for her skill in singing, dancing, and performing. She was a confident actress, and this lent itself well to her years in high school as a public forum debater. She reached the Illinois State debate finals twice, and became known for that skill as well.

Sharansky enrolled at Brown University in 1988. The liberal environment of Brown shaped her political views; her parents were registered Democrats, but nonetheless Sharansky had never been exposed to politics until college. She joined the Young Democrats at Brown and was an active member, campaigning for local Democrats frequently.

In her first year at Brown, Sharansky was a victim of date-rape by another student. After complaining to the administration, her case was dismissed and she was told that the alleged perpetrator was a "fine upstanding member of the Brown community. " After this, Sharansky started to spearhead several student strikes and sit-ins related to sexual assault on campus until the administration improved their policy relating to campus assault. She also lead the on-campus activist movements, Students for Admissions and Minority Aid (SAMA), calling for the administration to boost boost financial aid initiatives to ensure class diversity among future student populations. She organized a sit-in at University Hall, delivering a fiery speech. She was arrested in that occupation.

She also interned for several reputable law firms during the summers while she was an undergrad, including at Skadden, where she interned under a commercial litigator at the firm. In 1992 Sharansky enrolled at Boston University to receive her J.D., and graduated with her law degree in 1995. After law school, she married a longtime family friend, Jacob Gerwitz, an employee at the private equity firm Apollo. He soon became an executive through familial connections. They had their first son, Jonah, a few months after the wedding in 1995. They had their second child, Rachel, in 1996.

## Early Career

In 1998, after working in several positions at other firms, Sharansky was hired as an associate commercial litigator at Sidley Austin, where she worked in antitrust litigation. One of the notable cases she worked on was against several railroad companies who had been engaged in price-fixing. She also took up a litigation case against several coal companies who had dumped pollutants in the Chicago River. She won both cases, and was engaged in many more high-profile ones, including one where she defended a tobacco company against litigation that claimed the company used subversive advertising to lie about the effects of smoking.

Sharansky personally understood the problem of balancing family life with job life throughout her career. She already had two kids, but wanted to have more, feeling that her Jewish faith gave a lot of importance towards having children. She gave birth to her daughter Naomi in 1999, and her son Gabriel in 2001, and her daughter Zahava in 2003. In this time she took a break from her legal career.

In 2004, she ran for State Senate representing Chicago's 14th district. She had an easy time raising funds from her connections in the legal world as well as her husband's financial networks. She out-raised her opponents and won the seat, which she held for four years. In the State Senate, Sharansky sponsored legislation to expand tax credits for low-income children as well as increase subsidization of childcare. During this time, Rebekah had also spoken about her opposition to the Iraq War and the [not Bush] Tax Cuts. She also had two more children while in office; she gave birth to Anne in 2007 and Golda in 2008.

In 2009, Sharansky ran for Attorney General upon the resignation of the incumbent, who was making a bid for Senate. She had the same fundraising strength, but greatly benefited from several congressional endorsers. She also demonstrated not just an ability to fundraiser with high-dollar donors, but also with the grassroots, who were inspired by her campaign stump to bring "people-powered justice" to the office. She won narrowly, beating out her opponent, a local judge, with 50.4% of the vote.

## Attorney General of Illinois

As attorney general, Sharansky had a good working relationship with Senator Helen Whitaker as well as the former governor's successor. She was the first attorney general in almost 2 decades to argue a case in the Supreme Court, defending the legality of police officers using trained dogs without a warrant or probable cause to detect drugs and other illegal substances.

In 2012, Sharansky opened an investigation into for-profit higher education organizations in Illinois. She also investigated data-mining by certain Illinois industries. She made student debt a central theme in her tenure as AG; in 2013 and 2014, she investigated and successfully arguing cases against several companies in the student debt help settlement industry that scammed students in Illinois.

She was a fairly popular figure amongst young people and student activists, although some far-left progressives viewed her as soft on the financial industry because of her husband's job. Indeed, Rebekah did not open or authorize any major cases or investigations of banks, hedge funds, or private equity firms during her time as Attorney General.

It was speculated that Sharansky would run for higher office, and she became a big name in Democratic politics, with good connections in the media. She was placed at the top of many "young politicians to watch" lists. In 2015, the incumbent Illinois Senator made clear his intention not to seek reelection due to a serious family bereavement. As such, Sharansky began preparing the infrastructure for a Senate run in late 2015. She made top hires early on, appointing a former JPMorgan Chase and Brookings analyst as her policy director, and she found a campaign manager in a longtime staffer for Senator Whitaker. With several advisers hired, she launched her campaign better-prepared than any other candidate. She entered the race as the clear frontrunner, where she touted her credentials as an experienced lawyer who knew how to get things done. She demonstrated her youthful charisma heavily in this race, and also capitalized on her identity as a Jewish woman of color.

She was endorsed by both President Baharia and his Vice President. She easily defeated her primary challengers, who could not overcome her charisma, fundraising ability, and political connections. She defeated her Republican opponent, a Congressman, 54% to 40%.

## U.S. Senator for Illinois

As a Senator, Sharansky has been known for her fiery speeches on the Senate floor and she has been a relatively reliable party vote. She has been most notable on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she rigorously questioned [not Brett Kavanaugh], saying: "Judge Kavanaugh, I was a victim of rape in college. I know what it's like to be dismissed and not be listened to; I was told that the perpetrator was a 'fine upstanding member of the Brown community.' Judge, when we are told to ignore [not Christine Blasey Ford's] claims, we are simply following the status quo. I am [Dr. Ford]. And so are thousands of other women who are told by the people in power that they aren't credible. Judge Kavanugh, do you believe someone who reports a sexual assault or some kind of sexual misconduct weeks, month or even years after it allegedly took place is less credible than someone who immediately reports it?"

Her tough line of questioning against the Supreme Court nominee was a big breakout moment for her. However, she has been a champion for issues pertaining to higher education, similar to her AG tenure; she sponsored a bill to cancel the majority of student debt and a bill to make 4-year public college tuition free for low-income families and impose a cap on public college tuition for others. She also had several pieces of important legislation to her name, including a bill to legalize marijuana at the federal level as well as a piece of legislation that would further regulate pesticides like glyphosate.

As a Senator, she has been close to both J-Street and AIPAC. She has been vocal in her opposition to Wolf's strategy in Israel, although she supports the decision to move the American embassy to Jerusalem. She openly decried members of her party who made antisemitic comments.

## Resignation

Sharansky would resign from the United States Senate on June 28th, 2019 due to a criminal investigation launched by the Department of Justice.