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Preaching Tolerance Abroad, as Hatred Surges at Home
As a new U.S. envoy combating global antisemitism, Deborah Lipstadt first acknowledges America’s surge in hate crimes. She is also navigating a debate about the very definition of antisemitism.
Reporting from Washington
A year ago, Deborah Lipstadt, newly confirmed as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, attended a White House reception and reintroduced herself to President Biden as he passed by.
“I know who you are,” Dr. Lipstadt recalled the president telling her. “And you have a big job.”
Mr. Biden was right, but for reasons neither of them fully imagined.
Dr. Lipstadt, whose role at the State Department for the first time carries the rank of ambassador, “leads efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy to counter antisemitism throughout the world,” according to her job description. But as she spreads a message of tolerance across Europe and the Middle East, an alarming rise of antisemitic attacks and rhetoric at home in the United States has changed her approach to the job.
“My predecessors could go to countries and say, ‘You have a problem, and we take this seriously, and you should take it seriously.’ I can’t do that. I have to go and say, ‘We have a problem.’”
Dr. Lipstadt, 76, has spent her career studying antisemitism. To take the envoy position, she took a leave from teaching at Emory University, where she is the founding director of the Tam Institute for Jewish Studies.
“Antisemitism is not a niche issue,” she said in an interview. “It is an existential threat to democracy.”
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