Less than a month after reversing course on the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, President Joe Biden has appointed former advisor Amos Hochstein to serve as the energy envoy overseeing the new policy, as first reported by Axios.

A close advisor to the president, Hochstein served in former President Barack Obama’s administration as special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs at the State Department. His new position appears to be similar to the one he held under Obama, but a State Department spokesperson declined to comment when asked for specifics about the role. Hochstein also declined to comment.

For an Orthodox Jewish kid who fell in love with basketball as a boy, nothing could keep Yosef “Yogi” Oliff out of the gym on game day — not even braving the bone-chilling Chicago winters on a long Sabbath walk before tip-off. The star point guard from Skokie, Ill., knows firsthand the dedication it takes to play in a competitive Chicago-area high school league, and to be an observant Jew. 

“I’ve walked four miles to the gym, I’ve walked in snow, I’ve walked in negative weather,” Oliff, who received a Division I offer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told Jewish Insider in a recent interview.

Rep. Conor Lamb (D-PA), who declared his candidacy for the 2022 Pennsylvania Senate race on Friday, enters the campaign in the top tier of contenders given his moderate profile and history of attracting crucial working-class voters, Pennsylvania political analysts told Jewish Insider over the weekend.

Lamb first burst onto the national stage in 2018 after winning a special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, which had gone for former President Donald Trump two years prior and typically leans conservative. (The district is centered in Pittsburgh in the western part of the state.) Lamb has since become a prominent face in the moderate wing of the House Democratic caucus.

President Joe Biden will nominate Dallas attorney Marc Stanley to be the next U.S. ambassador to Argentina, a White House official confirmed to Jewish Insider. Stanley is the latest political ally of Biden’s to be nominated for an ambassadorship. He was the chair of the “Lawyers for Biden” committee on Biden’s presidential campaign last year, recruiting thousands of attorneys to donate time and legal services. 

“It is a true honor to be nominated by President Biden to represent the United States in Argentina, and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve my country,” Stanley told Jewish Insider. “If confirmed, I hope to build an even stronger relationship between the United States and Argentina.”

Taking on one of the leaders of the Democratic Party, freshman Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) dismissed criticism of progressive Democrats and policies in the wake of Nina Turner’s loss in an Ohio congressional special election primary earlier this week to moderate Democrat Shontel Brown.

Jones, a first-term congressman who beat a large field of other candidates to replace retiring Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) last year, defended the progressive movement’s electability on an episode of “Pod Save America” released on Thursday in response to comments by House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

Following the White House’s announcement in late July of several high-level religious appointments, President Joe Biden will appoint Chanan Weissman to serve as his administration’s liaison to the Jewish community, a White House official confirmed to Jewish Insider on Thursday. 

Weissman, who currently works in the White House as director for technology and democracy on the National Security Council, also served as Jewish liaison during the final year of former President Barack Obama’s administration. He worked at the State Department throughout the Trump administration, serving as section lead for internet freedom and business and human rights until April 2021.

Anti-Defamation League President and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt plans to discuss the recent upswing in global antisemitism and link it to violence against other minority groups at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing today, the ADL executive told Jewish Insider. He’ll also urge senators to reform a controversial section of the Communications Decency Act that serves as a liability shield for social media companies.

Greenblatt is set to testify at a hearing on domestic terrorism and violent extremism, the second such hearing this week.

Israeli-American equestrian star Ashlee Bond, who learned to ride in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas, Calif., was so jazzed after her third-place finish in Tuesday’s qualifier in Individual Jumping at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, she took to Instagram — and spoke directly to her horse, Donatello 141, or Donnie. 

Bond, who ultimately fell short in Individual Jumping but will go on to compete with the rest of the Israeli team later this week in the group event, wrote in an Instagram post, “Donnie, you’re unreal 🦄!! Clear and fast in tonight’s Olympic individual qualifier, finishing third — which has us in a great position for tomorrow’s individual final! Thank you, Donnie!! And thank you to everyone cheering from around the world!”