Lawmakers Urge Tillerson To Appoint Anti-Semitism Envoy
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Dozens of Congress members have called on Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to say whether the State Department will hire a special envoy for the Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.
In a bipartisan letter sent last Friday, Reps. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., were among 116 House lawmakers who also urged President Trump to keep the office staffed following reports that it would be left empty after July 1.
The special envoy post, which was mandated in the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004, has been unfilled since Trump’s inauguration in late January. The special envoy monitors acts of anti-Semitism abroad, document the cases in State Department reports, and consults with domestic and international nongovernmental organizations.
Smith, the primary author of the 2004 amendment, said in a news release that the position is especially important now “in the fight against this terrible hate that is on the rise in the world.”
“Seventy-two years after the Holocaust ended,” he said, “anti-Semites continue to target the Jewish people for discrimination, destruction of property and even death.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
