She may be the first Jewish woman to head the UN - but there is an obstacle

Rebecca Greenspan Mayofis, a Jewish candidate from Costa Rica, leads the UN Security Council polls for the position of UN Secretary-General, with nine votes of support. Her critical stance toward Israel may pose an obstacle to her appointment due to American reservations.

Rebecca Greenspan Mayofis, a Jewish candidate from Costa Rica, leads the internal polls of the UN Security Council for the position of UN Secretary-General, out of seven candidates. In the latest poll from October 7, she received nine votes of support. Greenspan, from a Polish-Jewish family, shared in a UN podcast her family's story of fleeing Poland to Russia in 1936 fearing Nazism, and her parents meeting in a displaced persons camp in Cyprus. Greenspan holds critical positions toward Israeli policy, mainly regarding the war in Gaza and control over the territories, and condemned harm to civilians in Gaza alongside condemnation of the Hamas attack on October 7 and support for a two-state solution. According to a report in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, her critical positions are one of the reasons for American reservations about her candidacy.

She may be the first Jewish woman to head the UN - but there is an obstacle