(JNS.org) Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. since July 2009, announced on Friday that he plans to step down from the position this fall. “Israel and the United States have always enjoyed a special relationship and, throughout these years of challenge, I was privileged to take part in forging even firmer bonds,” Oren said in a statement on his Facebook page. Oren, who grew up in New Jersey, is Israel’s first American-born ambassador to the U.S., and his replacement could be the second. In late June, Army Radio reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would appoint his close aide Ron Dermer, a native of Miami Beach, Fla., as Oren’s successor.