Twenty-two years ago, the US established a special office in the State Department explicitly tasked with combatting antisemitism. And after a mid-December, 53-47 party-line Senate confirmation vote, that office finally has its leader, a Lubavitch rabbi and entrepreneur.
Hudson Institute senior Fellow Michael Doran interviewed Ambassador Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, President Donald Trump’s new Special Envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, at the Washington DC think tank last Thursday. Kaploun discussed his understanding of resurgent Jew-hatred, his new role, and his “very daunting task” while citing challenges and wins.
Doran approvingly recalled Kaploun’s Congressional testimony equating antisemitism and anti-Americanism. “For people chanting ‘Death to Israel’, the second line is usually ‘Death to America’,” Kaploun commented, because they have “the same level of hatred” for both countries.
Asked about the “global wave” of Jew-hatred, Kaploun pointed to two sources. First, people use “the internet… to highlight things that aren’t true, and… it becomes the narrative… The norm is not the truth any more, and that lends itself to a rise in antisemitism. The second part of that is basic ignorance and education.” American students, for example, aren’t learning necessary basics, including “basic American history. The pride of being an American is missing.”
Kaploun expressed his own American pride, reacting to a heckler by telling Doran: “The beauty of this country is you can hate me, but you have to protect me.” Kaploun was similarly sunny in describing Team Trump: “We are blessed that this administration has really made antisemitism a priority,” including “holding people accountable”.
The Special Envoy role itself has two main components. Part one “is to read and react to tragedy or things that occur”. Part two “is how do you affect policy and use quality diplomacy” to “get results,” using “gentle persuasion, or maybe not so gentle persuasion”.
Kaploun confirmed his office uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of Jew-hatred, calling it “a baseline”, and asked why less than 50 countries have adopted the definition.
Kaploun further identified some recent victories. Among them, the Armenian government committed to joining IHRA, the Belgian government restored security funding for synagogues and Jewish schools, and “BDS language in Ireland has been pulled”.
Asked about the “strongest allies and opponents”, Kaploun praised “Hungary, Romania… Albania, Armenia, that are literally trying to educate their people.” By contrast, “Turkey leaves a lot to be desired currently. You know, Pakistan, again, a lot to be desired. But the historic Abraham Accords and the historic Gaza agreement, I believe, give us a tremendous amount of opportunity to lower the rhetoric of hate globally.”
Kaploun strikingly singled out the UK for concern: “Mass migration is a huge problem if people aren’t willing to abide by the law and order within that country. If I was in a conversation with a diplomat, I would say their responsibility… is to provide safety and security for everybody, to have religious freedom and protection.
“Governments must ensure ‘people are… safe walking the streets. You know, to walk the street with a yarmulke in England, people are being attacked. That’s not OK. That’s something that has to be addressed… The rise in antisemitism, the antisemitism rhetoric, has to be condemned from the top down. Leadership has to step up.”
I reached out to Gregg Rickman, who served as the first Special Envoy, to ask what he sees as today’s main challenges for Kaploun: “Jihadi antisemitism and the same from the left,” Rickman said.
“I think that that unholy alliance was present during my time in the position and has perhaps been the prevailing threat. This is not to say that threats from the right don’t exist, but when you look at the vast amount of campus protests from leftist students and provocateurs because of Israel’s self-defensive actions in Gaza, the threat is plain to see. I hope Yehuda can make a dent in that alliance and I wish him all the luck in doing so.”
Given Jew-hatred’s explosion worldwide, efforts to concretely combat it are urgently needed. The problem Kaploun confronts is both massive and millennia in the making. However, there’s hope for progress, as Kaploun enters the fray with the heft of the US government behind him.
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