(Jewish Group) Senate needs to confirm Deborah Lipstadt as antisemitism envoy -- Now

One would have thought that Dr. Deborah Lipstadt - who is one of the world's leading scholars of antisemitism, has written numerous acclaimed books on the subject, and was portrayed by an Academy Award-winning actress for winning a landmark lawsuit against a Holocaust denier - would have been a shoo-in to lead the U.S. State Department office tasked with fighting antisemitism at home and abroad.

But six months since President Biden first nominated Professor Lipstadt to be the country's next special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, the post remains vacant as some Senate Republicans are holding up her nomination. In politics, six months may not seem like a long time. In the fight against antisemitism, however, six months is an eternity.

Just look at the first weeks of 2022. An armed individual entered a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, taking four members hostage during a virtual Shabbat service - reportedly in an attempt to secure the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui. By all indications, this was a targeted attack against Jews.

Beyond that incident, a tech CEO in Salt Lake City sent a letter to that state's political and business leadership accusing Jews of trying to provoke a genocide through the COVID vaccine. A Hasidic man in Brooklyn was brutally attacked. The main Jewish cemetery in Buenos Aires, Argentina - home of the largest Jewish community in South America - was vandalized.

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