Deborah Lipstadt slams progressive definition of antisemitism
Deborah Lipstadt, U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, pictured here in February, weighed in on several definitions of antisemitism during a meeting with reporters Wednesday. Photo by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Arno Rosenfeld August 8, 2024
Arno Rosenfeld has covered the debate over antisemitism definitions since he joined the Forward in 2020 and attended a roundtable discussion with Lipstadt at the State Department on Wednesday.
Deborah Lipstadt, the U.S. special envoy for monitoring antisemitism, defended a controversial definition of antisemitism Wednesday and slammed a progressive alternative as having been endorsed by “some renowned antisemites.”
In a conversation with reporters at the State Department, Lipstadt said that International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which describes anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism, represented the best language for addressing antisemitism overseas because foreign governments are most familiar with it.
“You need a definition,” Lipstadt said.
How the federal government should define antisemitism in relation to Israel has been a contentious topic since the Trump administration, and even more so as President Joe Biden has sought to make combating antisemitism a cornerstone of his administration.
The release of the landmark national strategy to counter antisemitism last year was delayed for several weeks amid a frantic lobbying campaign between proponents of the IHRA definition, including most major American Jewish groups, and critics who say that it has a chilling effect on legitimate criticism of Israel.
The White House ultimately mentioned in the strategy both the IHRA definition and the Nexus Document, which is meant to complement the IHRA definition and soften some of its positions on Israel. But Lipstadt said on Wednesday that Nexus was not appropriate for international use.
“You say ‘Nexus’ to most Europeans, they have no idea what you’re talking about,” Lipstadt said. “It’s not applicable.”
Jonathan Jacoby, who founded the task force behind Nexus, said that he hoped the group could work with Lipstadt to raise its profile internationally. “Nexus has only been used in the U.S. context, but the principles apply whenever and wherever issues related to Israel and antisemitism intersect,” he said.
Endorsed by ‘renowned antisemites,’ Lipstadt claims
But Lipstadt, a Holocaust historian, reserved her harshest criticism for the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which was released in 2021 as an alternative to IHRA and alluded to, but not mentioned, in the White House strategy.
“A group of academics signed it, including some renowned antisemites like Richard Falk,” Lipstadt said. “So I don’t know that I’d want to go with that definition of antisemitism.”
Falk, a retired Princeton professor and longtime critic of Israel, has been embroiled in several controversies involving allegations of antisemitism and conspiracy theories, including posting a cartoon on his blog that featured a dog wearing a yarmulke while urinating on Lady Justice.
Falk, who is Jewish, has consistently denied that he is antisemitic.
The Jerusalem Declaration was drafted by a group of mostly Jewish academics and has been signed by more than 300 other scholars.
Lipstadt said that her primary objection to the document was its criticism of the IHRA definition, which has been endorsed by several dozen countries since its creation in 2016 but has faced significant pushback in recent years.
The Jerusalem Declaration states that the IHRA definition is “unclear in key respects” and had “caused confusion and generated controversy, hence weakening the fight against antisemitism.”
“I don’t think that’s accurate,” Lipstadt said. “I’m not saying the IHRA definition is a perfect definition at all — the definitions change and evolve. But it certainly hasn’t weakened it.”
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