Robert Silverman joined the U.S. diplomatic service in order to learn about the Middle East, a region of the world that fascinated him growing up in Iowa, and to work on behalf of the American people.

He had earlier studied Arabic at Princeton University and in a post-graduate year at the American University in Cairo. In the diplomatic service, Robert, later joined by his wife Young-Mi, worked in embassies throughout the Middle East, including in Cairo, where their daughter was born and grew up. During those years in Cairo, Robert became friends with the late Egyptian playwright Ali Salem and, with Ali’s permission, translated one of his books into English, published as A Drive to Israel in 2002.

For the past ten years, Robert has worked in the private sector, co-founding a Muslim-Jewish organization in the United States called IJMA (“Inter Jewish Muslim Alliance”), teaching college courses on American foreign policy, and serving as editor-in-chief of a foreign affairs journal, The Jerusalem Strategic Tribune.

Robert was recalled to the U.S. diplomatic service in February 2026 in order to assume responsibility for leading the U.S. embassy in Cairo at a critical time for Egypt and the United States.