52 No. 78 JUSTICE A second problem that has bedeviled the antisemitism envoy position has been the long delays in the appointment process. It took President Bush eighteen months to choose Dr. Rickman as the first envoy. Rickman was relieved of his duties when the Obama administration took office in January 2009, but nearly a year passed before the appointment of his successor, Hannah Rosenthal. When the Trump administration took office, the task of replacing Ira Forman, who had finished Rosenthal’s term, was a low priority; in fact, in June 2017, five months into the first Trump administration, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cast doubt on whether the post would be filled at all.26 Finally, in February 2019, Elan Carr was named to the post. Legislation introduced by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) to upgrade the position to ambassador level was signed into law by President Joe Biden in early 2021; that moved gave the post greater prestige, but also meant future nominees would require Senate confirmation. Partisan squabbles over various ambassadorial appointments delayed the confirmation of Prof. Deborah E. Lipstadt for more than a year. Lipstadt’s tenure included a noteworthy departure from the official mandate restricting the envoy’s attention to the arena of overseas antisemitism: she was involved in drafting President Biden’s 2023 National Strategy for Countering Antisemitism, which focused on domestic antisemitism.27 The very adoption of the strategy signaled U.S. governmental concern about the problem, although some of the contents reflected the inherent tensions in balancing the administration’s conflicting interests. For example, the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was included on the list of bodies with which the White House would work on implementation, a reflection of the President’s relations with the Muslim American community. But soon after the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, CAIR’s executive director was tape-recorded praising the massacres and the administration cut its ties with the group.28 The Biden plan also paired antisemitism with other forms of discrimination, citing “Islamophobia, online misogyny, gender-based violence” and violence against “AANHPI communities” (Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders), which implicitly diluted the plan’s focus on anti-Jewish bigotry. The Biden plan also was vague in its descriptions of some recent antisemitic episodes, for example mentioning that Jews had been “targeted for derision and exclusion on college campuses,” but not identifying the ideology or organizational associations of the perpetrators.29 Achievements and Pitfalls One major purpose of Congressman Lantos’s initiative was to draw greater public attention to the problem of antisemitism. The bill’s record in that regard has been mixed. Envoys who chose to adopt a more public profile kept the issue in the spotlight; but some of the envoys opted to assume a lower profile. The elimination of the envoy’s standalone reports has also set back the goal of making the issue more prominent. The reluctance of the envoys to 26. Ron Kampeas, “Rex Tillerson retreats from commitment to fill anti-Semitism envoy position,” JTA (June 15, 2017), available at https://www.timesofisrael.com/tillerson-retreats-from-pledge-to-fill-anti-semitism-envoy-post/ 27. Lauren Markoe, “Deborah Lipstadt, Exiting as US Antisemitism Envoy, is Hoping for the Best Under Trump” (Jan. 14, 2025) available at https://www.jta.org/2025/01/14/united-states/deborah-lipstadt-exiting-as-us-antisemitism-envoyis-hoping-for-the-best-under-trump 28. Gabby Deutch, “White House distances itself from CAIR, condemns director’s ‘antisemitic statements’” (Dec. 7, 2023), available at https://jewishinsider.com/2023/12/white-house-distances-itself-from-cair-condemns-directorsantisemitic-statements/ 29. The White House “U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,” May 25, 2023, at 9. The plan did not acknowledge that while Ku Klux Klan chapters nationwide have a combined national membership of about 3,000, the Rev. Louis Farrakhan’s antisemitic Nation of Islam has tens of thousands of members. See Megan Trimble, “KKK Groups Still Active in These States in 2017,” U.S. NEWS AND WORLD REPORT (Aug. 14, 2017); see “Nation of Islam” (Sept. 1, 2021), available at https://www.adl.org/resources/profile/nation-islam
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