Spotlight

Car Czar

Ron Bloom is in the Labor Zionist tradition.

Rachel Tepper

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington

B

y now, Ron Bloom's professional
road to becoming the Obama
administration's car czar has been
widely reported. Missing from the coverage,
however, has been any mention of those
formative years at Jewish summer camp.
Born in New York City and raised in
Swarthmore, a suburb of Philadelphia,
Bloom had his early life revolve around
Habonim (now Habonim Dror), a progres-
sive Labor Zionist youth movement that
emphasizes cultural Judaism, socialism
and social justice.
It's all part of an upbringing that the
man overseeing the country's bailout of
the U.S. auto industry cites among his ear-
liest influences.
"I had an aunt in the teacher's union"
and relatives who were "Hebrew butchers
and Hebrew bakers," said Bloom a few
days after returning from Israel, where
he attended the 80th birthday of an uncle
who moved there several decades ago.
"My grandparents were immigrants
from Eastern Europe; that was very much
in my upbringing," Bloom said.
Bloom's parents met at a Habonim
summer camp in the 1940s and moved to
Israel, intending to make aliyah. Though
they changed their minds and moved back
to the United States, Habonim remained
an integral part of their lives.
"My parents had always been supportive
of doing something that we found mean-
ingful," Bloom said. "There was always a

view that what's going on in the world mat-
ters. We talked politics at the dinner table.
Life was about engagement in the world."
At age 10, Bloom was sent with his two
siblings to Camp Galil, a movement-run
summer camp near Doylestown, Pa. He
returned each season for the next four
years and later became a camp counselor.
One of campers was Jack Markell, who
years later would become the governor of
Delaware. Bloom reconnected with Markell
as well as with several other old Habonim
friends, upon arriving in Washington
for his new job. They are now "offering
me home-cooked meals': said Bloom,
who is commuting between his family in
Pittsburgh and his job in Washington.
Bloom recalled camp as "a fun experi-
ence" that afforded him the opportunity
to "meet people from different places?'
He never intended to go into the Labor
Zionist movement professionally.
Addressing the question of how the
experience influenced him, Bloom said,
"It's all a tapestry and it's hard to figure
out what fits where?'
Habonim infused him with values
that influenced the way he views public
service. "We sang the songs, but it wasn't
about that," Bloom said. "It was a broader
sense of identifying with the underdog
and of observing the world through a lens,
through people who don't have as much
and aren't as lucky?'
The Labor Zionist movement prides
itself in its direct connection with union
work and its ability to inspire leader-
ship, said Kenneth Bob, the president of
Ameinu, the Labor Zionist organization
that provides funding to the Habonim
Dror youth movement.

Ron Bloom heads the president's auto task force.

Prior to his ascent in the Labor Zionist
movement, Bob was Bloom's counselor
at Camp Tel Ari leadership training. He
recalled Bloom as "a very serious, engaged
person, there for the right reasons, to
drink in the experience and learn as much
as he could?'
Bob said there is a "great deal of pride"
within the Habonim community regard-
ing Bloom's new position in the Obama
administration.
"There's definitely been a buzz on the
online alumni listserv," Bob said. "People
are very proud, very supportive of Obama
and excited about the things he's trying to
do and to have one of our own helping?'
Bloom's expertise in both private bank-
ing and the labor union movement, as well
as his reputation as a passionate but prag-
matic negotiator, helped him land what he
says is the job of a lifetime.
A graduate of Harvard business school,
Bloom worked as an investment banker for
a decade before leaving the financial sector
to take a position — and pay cut — with
the United Steelworkers of America. Then,

when Obama came into office, he became
an aide to Steven Rattner at the Presidential
Task Force on the Auto Industry. When
Rattner resigned after just five months,
Bloom took over as car czar.
Now, there's speculation in Washington
that Bloom will be offered a new position
soon overseeing manufacturing policy for
the Obama administration.
Bloom said his decision to join the
administration was, in part, the product of
a broader sense of engagement and desire
to improve the world, which he developed
in his Habonim years. "That's part of what
I try to do in my work life:' he said. "That's
one of the things that made me want to
work for Obama"
As for the possibility of future assign-
ments in Washington, Bloom said that the
difficulties of commuting and the strain
it places on his family would need to be
taken into consideration.
"I'm not in a position to talk about
future," Bloom said. "I will stay as long as
the president wants me to stay. If there are
opportunities, I'll consider them?' ❑

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