Rabbi Dr. Dov S. Zakheim was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Planning and Resources) from 1985 to 1987. He was Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller), Chief DoD Financial Officer from 2001- 2004 and civilian coordinator for Afghanistan from 2002 to 2004. He holds a B.A. from Columbia University, a doctorate from Oxford University, and semicha from Hagaon Harav Shmuel Watkin.

 Throughout my career, I never had any problems with Shabbat, Yom Tov, or any other matter relating to my Orthodox practices. That observation applies to my years at the Congressional Budget Office, where I first worked for the U.S. government, through my time in the Reagan Administration and, years later, that of the George W. Bush Administration. On the contrary, I found that my colleagues – notably my non-Jewish colleagues – were willing to make special provisions for me, especially when it came to Shabbat. In fact, even when I was an advisor to then-Governor Bush, Condoleezza Rice, leader of our foreign and national security policy team (the so-called “Vulcans”), made every effort to accommodate my Shabbat needs when we had a series of weekend meetings at Stanford, where she was then provost.