Curbing Jew-hatred became an official national US strategy in May 2023, and after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks later that year, local, state and federal bodies focused increasingly on surging antisemitism. Along the way, Deborah Lipstadt’s portfolio and office as special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism at the State Department has expanded, the outgoing envoy told reporters last week.
“I think that we have raised the profile,” said the noted Holocaust historian, who taught at Emory University prior to her role in Foggy Bottom.
Instead of “only screaming and yelling and condemning what was going on,” Lipstadt told reporters that she sought “to somehow get governments to take it seriously, to address it as a foreign policy concern that this has direct implications on your foreign policy, irrespective of whether you have a large Jewish community or not.”
In July 2024, Lipstadt and her office were a part of the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism, a non-binding framework onto which Washington and dozens of countries and global bodies signed.
The guidelines carry the full weight of US foreign policy and enshrine combatting Jew-hatred with other human rights priorities, according to Lipstadt and Aaron Keyak, her deputy special envoy. “We have a policy of protecting vulnerable populations or promoting democracy. This is now just one of those pillars.”
The guidelines also signal to other countries that their actions when it comes to Jew-hatred domestically — like in other areas, including religious freedom and women’s rights — will impact their relationships with Washington, according to Lipstadt.
One place that does need more change is the United Nations, according to Lipstadt.
“There are officials inside the UN who have engaged in overt antisemitism, but I don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater,” she said. “If we can start to get it to take this issue seriously, then that would be worthwhile. Its record has not been great.”
She said that a long-stalled plan to fight Jew-hatred at the UN, which the global body worked on with Jewish groups, remains “in the works.”
“Is it serious? A plan could be serious, but it’s only a plan,” she said. “It’s what’s done to implement it.”
Lipstadt told reporters about a previously unreported exchange that she had with UN Secretary-General António Guterres at a Munich synagogue.
After thanking Guterres for meeting often with the families of hostages being held in Gaza, Lipstadt mentioned the frequent antisemitic remarks of Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for Palestinian rights, who has drawn criticism from the US, German and French governments. Critics have said often that Guterres and the UN haven’t sufficiently denounced Albanese, who is considered an adviser to the global body and not an employee.
Lipstadt told reporters that Guterres said of Albanese, within earshot of the press gaggle at the synagogue, that “she’s a horrible person.”
Fritz Berggren, a US foreign service officer revealed to be the creator of a white nationalist website, is no longer a State Department employee, Lipstadt said. “The legal details are not fully open, but it was an ending,” she added, declining to specify if Berggren opted to leave or was fired.
Lipstadt and Keyak told reporters the person who carved a swastika into a State Department elevator in July 2021 has yet to be identified. The department’s headquarters in Foggy Bottom is closely guarded by officers, but there was no camera in the area of the elevator, they said.
Asked if Jew-hatred was more prevalent at the State Department after Oct. 7. Lipstadt said that mid-level staffers, who came out publicly against the department’s positions and policies on the Israel-Hamas war, shouldn’t be seen as antisemitic.
Her office faced “some internal resistance” from “some misinformed people,” who thought that it was essentially running cover for Israel, she added. She told reporters that no one ever approached her with such concerns.
She wouldn’t comment on or endorse a successor, but said only that she hopes the next envoy “will be a barn builder, not a barn burner.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Blinken at the State Department helm, takes Jew-hatred seriously, according to Lipstadt. “That gives me hope on this issue,” she said.
“Some of the things I’ve done have been done quietly. Sometimes they’ve succeeded. Sometimes they haven’t. Speeches that were given, lines that were delivered, weren’t delivered,” Lipstadt told reporters. “I don’t want to speak out too much on everything. At some point, you’ll be dismissed as a partisan hack.”