WASHINGTON (JNS) — Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s nominee, to lead the State Dept.’s office that monitors and combats anti-Semitism appeared in the Senate on Tuesday, Feb. 8, for her confirmation.
Deborah Lipstadt speaking at the Feb. 8, 2022 hearing. (Ron Kampeas)
Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lipstadt made the case that anti-Semitism is on the rise.
“Increasingly, Jews have been singled out for slander, violence and terrorism,” she said. “Today’s rise in anti-Semitism is staggering.”
Her confirmation has been delayed for several months reportedly over concerns raised by Republicans of her past statements.
She has been criticized for appearing in a 2020 advertisement where she likened Trump’s rhetoric to that of Nazi Germany.
In a tweet she labeled a specific statement by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) as white supremacy.
During a radio interview last year, Johnson stated that he was not concerned by the mostly white insurgents at the US Capitol on Jan. 6, but would be concerned if former President Donald Trump had won the election and those rioting at the Capitol were Black Lives Matters protesters or members of Antifa.
Democrats on the panel noted that the lead Republican, James Risch of Idaho, had delayed Lipstadt’s confirmation because of her past attacks on Republicans.
“It’s good to see you here, we’ve been trying to get you here for a while,” Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., who is Jewish, said to Lipstadt upon entering the room.
“I am truly disappointed it took this long,” the committee chairman, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, said in his opening remarks.
Risch acknowledged the delay, saying he had heard the “grumbling.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), chairman of the Western Hemisphere subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was the lead questioner. He alluded to Lipstadt’s past statements critical of Republicans, but did not chide her, instead asking her to explain them.
Lipstadt said she had learned not to tweet “in the middle of the night” and also noted that she had been “exceptionally critical of members of the Democratic Party.”
Rubio then asked Lipstadt her opinion of the recent Amnesty International report accusing Israel of apartheid. The question gave her the opportunity to denounce the report and the usage of the term, which has become a red flag for pro-Israel communities.
Johnson, who appeared at the hearing, made clear he would continue to oppose Lipstadt’s nomination.
Lipstadt told Johnson on Tuesday that she regretted her tweet about him and said she was describing her views on an outlook, not on Johnson personally.
An author, Holocaust historian and the Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University, Lipstadt was nominated by President Joe Biden on July 30. Since then, Jewish groups have written numerous letters to the committee in support of her nomination, especially in the wake of last month’s attack on a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas.
In her hearing, Lipstadt dismissed partisanship, saying she has called out anti-Semitism on both sides of the aisle. She acknowledged, however, that some of her posts had not been “as nuanced” as she would have liked.
If confirmed, Lipstadt’s role would be to focus on reporting on global anti-Semitism and pressing governments to adopt measures to mitigate it.
While the position does not primarily focus on domestic concerns, she will likely be seen as the Biden administration’s voice on the issue.
One important issue will be to work to apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism, which equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.
The Biden administration has supported the IHRA definition, which includes the plank that criticism of Israel can cross over into anti-Semitism.
“I think it’s very important to be nuanced there because, you know, it’s sort of [like] ‘Chicken Little’ [repeating], ‘The sky is falling,’” she said. “If you call everything anti-Semitism, when you have a real act of anti-Semitism, people aren’t paying attention.”
Nevertheless, Lipstadt said she believes Colleyville was “not an isolated incident” and that more needs to be done to combat anti-Semitism.
“If confirmed, I shall fight anti-Semitism worldwide, without fear or favor, and with that one goal emblazoned before me to make a difference,” she vowed.
Ron Kampeas of JTA contributed to this report.