(JTA) – After months of speculation, President Joe Biden has chosen Chanan Weissman as White House liaison to the Jewish community. Weissman, 37, was President Barack Obama’s Jewish liaison in the last months of his presidency. Sources close to the White House on Thursday confirmed the choice. Weissman’s LinkedIn profile says he has since May been director of technology and democracy at the White House’s National Security Council. It’s not yet clear if he will maintain that position as he assumes the role of Jewish liaison. Jewish groups have been pressing the White House to name a Jewish liaison and a State Department antisemitism monitor as antisemitism has spiked in recent months. The Anti-Defamation League praised the appointment, although the White House had yet to formally make the announcement on Thursday afternoon.

Weissman first came to the role in April 2016 after a long stint working in the office of the antisemitism monitor, who was at the time Ira Forman. He returned to the State Department with Donald Trump’s assumption of the presidency in 2017 as a career hire, not a political appointee, and remained in the department in various capacities through April.

A graduate of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, he has also worked at the Pentagon on Middle East issues. He is from Baltimore, where he graduated from Beth Tfiloh, a Jewish community day school.

Main Photo: Chanan Weissman is shown here in November of 2016. (YouTube, via JTA)