YONKERS MAN: Meet Biden’s Choice For Secretary Of State – Antony Blinken

For Antony Blinken, the incoming administration’s pick for America’s top diplomat, returning to the U.S. State Department brings the opportunity to continue both professional and family traditions.

Antony Blinken was born in Yonkers, New York, he comes from a family of public servants and diplomats.

His father Donald served in the U.S. Air Force and as U.S. ambassador to Hungary. His uncle, Alan Blinken, served as U.S. ambassador to Belgium.

His grandfather, Maurice Blinken, escaped pogroms in Russia before immigrating to the United States. His stepmother, Vera Blinken, fled communist Hungary and later helped other refugees come to America.

And Blinken’s stepfather, Samuel Pisar, survived four years in Nazi concentration camps and escaped a death march before being rescued by U.S. troops.

After surviving the Holocaust, Blinken’s stepfather went on to attend Harvard and serve as an adviser to President Kennedy.

A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, he joined the State Department in 1994. Blinken later took posts in the Clinton White House and on the staff of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee where he worked closely with Biden, then a senator from Delaware.

After Obama’s election in 2008, Blinken served as then-Vice President Biden’s national security adviser and later as principal deputy national security adviser. He was appointed deputy secretary of state in 2015.

In recent remarks, Blinken says the United States has a critical role in convening other nations to tackle global challenges like climate change, arms proliferation and the COVID-19 pandemic.