Trump Won’t Staff Anti-Semitism Envoy’s Office
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(JTA) — The office of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism will remain inactive due to a State Department personnel decision, according to a former State Department official.
President Donald Trump has yet to fill the envoy post.
According to the official, the anti-Semitism envoy’s staff will also be eliminated. A directive ending the employment of all the contractors in the secretary’s bureau, the division of the State Department that houses the envoy’s office, will remove the three or four staff members working in the office.
The last person to fill the post was Ira Forman, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2013 and served until Trump’s inauguration.
The official said that to the best of his knowledge, the directive is not intended to target the anti-Semitism office specifically.
“There will be no one left to work on anti-Semitism within the anti-Semitism office,” the official said. “The work of the office will essentially end until they decide to rehire someone, and they don’t even have to do that.”
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