Robert J. Silverman

Robert J. Silverman is a lecturer in the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Department and the Department of Strategy, Diplomacy, and Security at Shalem College. Formerly a senior United States diplomat, he served as elected president of the 17,000-member American Foreign Service Association and, while at the State Department, as political counselor to the U.S. embassy in Israel, economic counselor to the U.S. embassy in Saudi Arabia, Charge d’Affaires to the U.S. Embassy in Sweden, and director of the Iraq Reconstruction office in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs. Silverman received a Master of Public Administration from Princeton University and a law degree from the University of Michigan. He currently serves as president of IJMA – The Inter Jewish Muslim Alliance, an American non-profit organization that brings together Jewish and Muslim leaders of civil society in the U.S. and Germany to address inter-communal bigotry and advocate for common public policy goals.