Presidential Appointments

In 2022, Harley was nominated by Senator Bob Menendez and appointed by President Biden to serve on the USAID Middle East Partnership for Peace Fund (MEPPA). MEPPA is the largest investment by the US Congress in peace-building in the Middle East fostering economic, social, and political connections between Israelis and Palestinians. This can serve as a foundation for joint economic ventures, leading to tolerance, and ultimately peaceful coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians.

Harley was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as a member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad and has been reappointed by every president since. In this role, Harley personally spearheaded efforts that uncovered over 20 mass graves across Poland of Jews massacred by Germans between September 1939 and March 1942, two years prior to the Holocaust. Harley was personally responsible for erecting 23 memorials in Polish, English, and Hebrew in which both Rabbis and Priests officiated at the memorial service, and school children adopted gravesites to maintain.

This led Harley to be an executive-producer on an award-winning documentary that appeared on PBS entitled, ‘Safeguarding Memory: Commemorating Jewish Mass Graves in Poland’, on mass graves in Poland.