Joel Barry Pollak is an American politician and author. In 2010 he was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress from Illinois's 9th congressional district, unsuccessfully challenging incumbent Democrat Janice D. “Jan” Schakowsky

Jan Schakowsky

Janice D. "Jan" Schakowsky is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1999. She is a member of the Democratic Party.The district includes many of Chicago's northern suburbs, including Evanston, Skokie, Wilmette, Park Ridge, Des Plaines and Rosemont...

.

Personal life

Pollak was born in Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 but his parents emigrated to the United States shortly after his birth. He became a U.S. Citizen in 1987. He grew up in the Chicago suburbs, principally in Skokie. He attended Solomon Schechter Day School and Niles North High School, where he was the class valedictorian in 1995.

Pollak attended Harvard College

Harvard College

Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...

 and graduated magna cum laude in 1999 with a joint degree in Social Studies and Environmental Science & Public Policy (ESPP). He earned a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the University of Cape Town in 2006. He then enrolled at Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

. He worked as a research assistant for Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...

. After graduating in 2009, he was admitted to the State Bar of California, though he has never practiced law. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Hudson Institute

Hudson Institute

The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...

, working with noted human rights scholar and activist Anne Bayefsky

Anne Bayefsky

Anne Bayefsky is a human rights scholar and activist. She currently directs the Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and a barrister and solicitor, Ontario Bar. Her areas of expertise include international human rights law, equality...

. He married Julia Inge Pollak (née Bertelsmann) in December 2009.

Publications

Pollak’s first book, The Kasrils Affair: Jews and Minority Politics in the New South Africa (Double Storey, 2009) is based on his master’s thesis and uses debates involving the Jewish community as a window onto minority politics in general in post-apartheid South Africa. His second book, Don’t Tell Me Words Don’t Matter: How Rhetoric Won the 2008 Presidential Election (HC Press, 2009) is self-published and describes the role played by speeches in Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

’s victory over John McCain

John McCain

John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....

.

Pollak has written numerous op-eds and articles. While in law school, he wrote for the Harvard Law Record

Harvard Law Record

The Harvard Law Record is an independent, biweekly student-edited newspaper based at Harvard Law School. Founded in 1946, it is the oldest law school newspaper in the United States.-Characteristics:...

and alleged on his blog that Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat

Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...

 faked his blood donation for the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

Politics

Pollak was endorsed by the Chicago Tea Party and refers to himself as a Tea Party Republican.

External links

• Pollak For Congress Campaign Website
• Profile in the Harvard Law Record
  Harvard Law Record
  The Harvard Law Record is an independent, biweekly student-edited newspaper based at Harvard Law School. Founded in 1946, it is the oldest law school newspaper in the United States.-Characteristics:...
  
  
• Campaign contributions at OpenSecrets.org