This week, U.S. Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz welcomed Ellie Cohanim as Senior Policy Advisor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

Axar.az reports, citing United States Mission to the United Nations, a lifelong New Yorker who was born in Tehran, her family fled Iran in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution and the escalating persecution of Iran’s Jewish community. Her family’s story has shaped her lifelong commitment to freedom, human dignity, and American leadership.

“Ellie’s story is the American story. Her family fled persecution in Iran, built a life in New York, and she has spent her career looking for ways to serve America, fighting for freedom, standing with the persecuted, and calling out antisemitism wherever it hides. That is exactly the kind of conviction and courage we need at the United Nations,” said Ambassador Waltz.

Cohanim previously served as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the Department of State during President Donald J. Trump’s first administration. As the Department’s first Iranian-born Envoy, she led U.S. diplomatic efforts to combat antisemitism across the Near East and Western Hemisphere and helped forge groundbreaking partnerships with Arab nations as part of the Abraham Accords’ “Warm Peace” team.