Joel Pollak
Joel Barry Pollak (born 25 April 1977) is a South African-American conservative political commentator, writer, and attorney. He currently serves as the senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News. In 2010, he was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress from Illinois's 9th congressional district, losing to incumbent Democrat Jan Schakowsky with 31% of the vote. Early life and education Pollak was born to a Jewish family in Johannesburg, South Africa. His parents moved to the United States in 1977, and became United States citizen in 1987. He grew up in the Chicago suburbs, principally in Skokie. Pollak attended Solomon Schechter Day School and Niles North High School, where he was the class valedictorian in 1995. Pollak attended Harvard College, 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. Career From 2002 to 2006, Pollak was chief speechwriter for Tony Leon, leader of the Democratic Alliance, and is a family friend of Leon's successor Helen Zille. He then enrolled at Harvard Law School. Pollak was politically liberal in his early life, being active in groups which