10 Orthodox Jews Who Are Far More Successful Than You Ever Imagined: Orthodox Jewish All Stars Of 2013

Being Orthodox means you can't really get too far professionally, right? How could you with all those "hassles" of Sabbath and holiday observance and Jewish dietary laws? Meet ten people - Jew in the City's 2013 Orthodox Jewish All Stars - who have risen to the top of each of their fields.

Jack Lew, U.S. Treasury Secretary

Jacob Joseph “Jack” Lew is currently the Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and a member of President Obama’s Cabinet. Prior to that, Lew served as President Obama’s Chief of Staff and as the Director of Office Management and Budget in the Clinton and Obama administrations.

Lew was born in 1955 in New York City. He received an A.B. from Harvard and a J.D. from Georgetown Law. Lew’s career in Washington began in 1973. He spent eight years as principal domestic policy adviser to the late House Speaker Tip O’Neill of Massachusetts. After leaving the Clinton administration Lew worked for Citigroup and served as vice president of NYU. He returned to Washington to serve for the Obama administration and in 2012 became the White House Chief of Staff. Lew has lit the National Menorah in Washington twice, once in 1998 and again in 2011, and is married with two grown children.

Naama Shafir, First Orthodox Professional Women’s Basketball Player

A native Israeli, Naama Shafir is the only female Orthodox Jew to earn a scholarship at a Division I NCAA university. The four-time All MAC basketball player has received national media exposure from numerous major media outlets, including Sports Illustrated, USA Today, New York Times, ESPN.com, and CNN. But Shafir never compromised her Orthodox values for the game, whether it meant traveling before the squad or having all her meals brought frozen so that she could remain kosher. Shafir now plays guard for Israel’s Elitzur Ramla, making her the first Orthodox female professional basketball player.

Ari Pinchot, Co-Executive Producer of Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Ari Daniel Pinchot is the co-executive producer of the hot new film Lee Daniel’s The Butler, starring such heavy hitters as Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey. A Yeshiva University graduate, his first credit came as an associate producer of the award-winning documentary, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg. Pinchot went on to produce the critically acclaimed 2004 documentary, Paper Clips. Co-founder and President of CCE, he also directed Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story. Talent must run in the Pinchot family as he is also the uncle to America’s Got Talent Semi-Finalist Edon Pinchot.

Anne Neuberger, Director of National Security Agency/Commercial Solutions Center

Anne Neuberger is currently serving as the Director of the NSA/CSS Commercial Solutions Center (NCSC). Prior to that Neuberger was the special assistant to the director of the National Security Agency. She first joined government service in 2007 as a White House Fellow in the Department of Defense, working for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Founded in 1964, The White House Fellows program is one of America’s most prestigious programs for leadership and public service. Prior to joining government service, Neuberger was Senior Vice President of Operations at American Stock Transfer & Trust Company (AST), one of the largest transfer agents in America, where she was responsible for directing operations, including dividend distributions, proxy tabulations and complex mergers, and acquisitions processing for 2,000 publicly traded companies.

In addition to her government service, Neuberger founded and leads Sister to Sister, a not-for-profit organization that assists hundreds of single mothers and their children with job training, temporary financial assistance, and emotional support, and Operation HomeFront – NY and NJ, which provides emergency assistance for families of deployed soldiers in NY and NJ. She was awarded a NY State Senate Hometown Hero award for her leadership. Neuberger grew up in Boro Park and attended Bais Yaakov of Boro Park and then Touro College, where she studied finance and computer science and graduated summa cum laude. Neuberger was awarded the Hannah Lander Award for Academic Excellence and a Merit Scholarship.

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