Screenshots from webinar; zoom background LeoPatrizi/Getty Images Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt discussed the Biden administration’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in a June 1 webinar, featuring Lipstadt calling the plan “something that transcends politics.”
The webinar, hosted by the ADL, began with Greenblatt gushing over the plan as “a historical monumental achievement” and called the day of its release “one of the most consequential days that I’ve experienced at CEO of ADL.” Greenblatt argued that the plan mirrors a lot of the ADL’s policies and recommendations and that the plan is “astonishing” given “its breath, its depth, its ambition, its scope, its specificity at all levels.” “I used to write and contribute to documents like this when I looked for the White House,” Greenblatt said, adding that “a plan like this is very difficult to organize” and that “when you release something like this it can move mountains.” Greenblatt worked as a special assistant to then-President Barack Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation. The ADL CEO also lauded the plan for putting antisemitism on the same national priority as fighting climate change, income inequality and the debt ceiling as well as embracing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism “the single definition.”
Lipstadt explained that “over two dozen agencies” were involved in the plan and that Susan Rice, the outgoing head of the Domestic Policy Council, “held their feet to the fire” when they sent over “pablum.” Among the agencies involved included the Food and Drug Administration and the Agricultural Department, as one agency realized they didn’t have kosher food options available for children. Lipstadt hailed the plan as the “first time ever that the United States government has taken the bull by the horns and say, not to react but what can we do about it.”
The Special Envoy recounted how she is frequently asked if today’s climate is 1938 all over again. “I can say uncategorically: no,” Lipstadt said, pointing out that the Holocaust was a “government sponsored, government planned genocide.” “Today we have governments saying no,” she added, as the European Union, Germany and Austria have their own “very impressive” combating antisemitism strategies in place as well. “Things are difficult, but it’s a different time and I think this study is part of it,” Lipstadt said.
She also argued that the plan recognizes that the antisemitism isn’t just a threat to Jews, but to democracy as a whole. Antisemites believe that “Jews are behind the scenes conniving, controlling, making sure things run to fulfill their own needs at the expense of everyone else’s needs” and people who believe that “don’t believe in democracy” and don’t believe their government has their best interests at heart, Lipstadt said. “What starts with the Jews doesn’t end with the Jews,” she later added.
Greenblatt proceeded to ask Lipstadt about the plan’s embrace of IHRA while also including the Nexus Document definition. Lipstadt first explained that IHRA first came into being when “a group of countries convened in the year 2000 in Stockholm to address rising antisemitism, to address commemoration of Holocaust issues, to address a range of issues emerging from the Holocaust.” “Over the course of time what became evident to the participants of the alliance is that there was confusion… what exactly is antisemitism? There were times it was ambiguous,” Lipstadt said, as some wondered when criticism of Israel devolves into antisemitism. IHRA itself “is a guideline, not a law” and is “filled with nuance,” the Special Envoy continued. “It gives eight different examples of what might be antisemitism, and it introduces it by saying it may or may not [be antisemitism] depending on context. So you need to know the context.” The Biden administration has “embraced IHRA,” as has the State Department and Lipstadt herself, she contended. “This has been American policy and it’s reaffirmed in the report.”
As for Nexus, Lipstadt argued that it has “some of the same nuance that the IHRA definition has and in certain places, it even goes further than the IHRA definition” and that the two definitions “can supplement the other.” However, the report provides “no change in the American policy” regarding IHRA, according to Lipstadt.
Lipstadt was also asked about the role of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the plan, as CAIR is listed as one of the partners in the plan’s “cross-community solidarity and collective action to counter hate” pillar. “CAIR had no role in the strategy and no contribution to it,” Lipstadt said, explaining that “when the White House was preparing the fact sheet [for the plan], they reached out to a broad range of organizations… and CAIR was one of the organizations on the list.” She went on to say that there have been various people, institutions and organizations that “in the past have had… less than stellar records on combating antisemitism and maybe have had even records on fostering antisemitism.” “Some of them have reached out and said, ‘We want to work on this, we want to fight this’ and this would be a good time to hold their feet to the fire, to have them acknowledge where maybe they have gone wrong in the past… and to see if there’s a change,” Lipstadt said.
Greenblatt said that CAIR does have a history of trafficking in antisemitism and “ugly anti-Zionism” and has “said slanderous things about our organization, others, but they just endorsed a plan that centers IHRA in the middle of federal policy.” “Bravo CAIR!” Greenblatt said. “I hope you realize that you did that and we’re proud that you did that and hopefully you’re going to come around and join the rest of the world in dozens of governments and scores of cities and hundreds of non-government organizations that recognize anti-Zionism is antisemitism. CAIR, I hope you’re on board with that.”
In response to an earlier question about holding both sides of the political aisle accountable, Lipstadt said that when the White House was preparing to launch the plan she “was calling Republicans as well as Democrats. Republican senators, Republican members of congress… who have taken an active role in the fight against antisemitism.” “Our effort is to make it clear that this is something that transcends politics,” Lipstadt later added.
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