Wolf Blitzer was born on March 22, 1948, in Augsburg, Germany, to parents who had survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. The family immigrated to the United States when he was an infant, settling in Buffalo, New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from the University at Buffalo in 1970, then a master’s in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.

Blitzer began his career as a wire reporter for Reuters in Tel Aviv, then spent seventeen years as the Jerusalem Post’s Washington correspondent, where he broke the story of Jonathan Pollard’s arrest for spying for Israel. CNN hired him as a military affairs correspondent in 1990, and he covered the White House beat through the Clinton and Bush administrations. He anchored CNN’s Sunday morning program, Late Edition, starting in 1998, before launching his own daily show, Wolf Blitzer Reports, in 2000.

CNN folded that show into The Situation Room in 2005, and Blitzer has anchored it every weekday since. Over two decades in the chair, he has interviewed seven U.S. presidents and led CNN’s coverage of nearly every major election, war, and national disaster. Blitzer is CNN’s longest-serving anchor, having spent 36 years at the network.