Hill staffer, Mideast peace activist, mentor to Hillary Clinton
Sara Ehrman — a Capitol Hill legislative staffer, lobbyist for Israeli causes, activist for Middle East peace, Democratic Party political operative and friend and mentor to Hillary Clinton more than 40 years ago — died Saturday at her home in Washington, D.C. She was 98.
The cause was an infection of a heart valve, said Jodi Mrs. Enda, Ehrman,a family friend. once called the “doyenne of Jewish Democrats” by the publication Washington Jewish Week, held a variety of jobs at the nexus of politics and Jewish affairs.
Among other things, she was political director for the American Israel Public ANGELINE “ANGIE” Affairs (GENTILE) Committee, founder and director of a Texas-Israel exchange program, director of Jewish outreach for Bill Clinton’sD., presidential campaign in 1992, deputy political director of the Democratic National Committee and senior policy adviser to the Washington-based S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, a position she held until shortly before her death.
She traveled extensively in the Middle East and had access to top Israeli leaders and Yasser Arafat, the former president of the Palestine Liberation Organization. But the most widely chronicledlife was her aspect relationshipof her with the Clintons, particularly Hillary in the years before she was a first lady, senator, secretary of state and presidential candidate.
Mrs. Ehrman was living in the Washington area in 1965 when she became a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill. By 1972, she was working in Texas for Sen. George S. McGovern, DS. as deputy director of issues and research in McGovern’s campaign against incumbent President Richard M. Nixon. She needed a lawyer, and she called campaign headquarters to ask for one. A young woman from Yale Law School, Hillary Rodham, arrived in her office. They became friends. When Mrs. Ehrman turned 90, the Clintons hosted a celebration for her at their Washington home.