US Senate Moves Along Nomination of Professor Lipstadt to Serve as anti-Semitism Special Envoy

By Yehudit Garmaise

Deborah E. Lipstadt, a noted Holocaust scholar, professor, and writer, has been nominated by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to serve as the US State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism.

In the coming weeks, the full Senate is expected to vote on Lipstadt’s confirmation: a step that was necessary after the US Congress, last year, elevated the position to the rank of “ambassador.” 

Lipstadt, who is a professor of Holocaust studies and modern Jewish history at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the author of many books, including Anti-Semitism: Here and Now, was appointed in July 2021 by President Joe Biden, but her nomination was long-delayed after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) indicated that he would block her nomination after Lipstadt tweeted that he was assuming a “white supremacist” attitude when he expressed support for the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot in Washington, DC.

After Lipstadt apologized for her tweet, and her hearing was again postponed after several Democrats did not attend a meeting at which many Republicans were expected to oppose her nomination, the bi-partisan Senate Foreign Relations Committee finally approved her nomination today.

 “We are extremely pleased the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved Prof. Lipstadt for the position of special envoy to combat antisemitism as attacks and threats continue against the global Jewish community,” said the Orthodox Union, which has lobbied lawmakers and President Biden to fill the position to lead the fight the terrible surge of anti-Semitic attacks in the US in the last few years. “We are grateful for Prof. Lipstadt’s steadfast, vigilant, and vocal leadership and look forward to working with her upon her confirmation. 

“She is the right person, at a time of tremendous need, to take on this challenge; we call upon the full U.S. Senate to confirm her without delay.”