Trump picks Yehuda Kaploun, a friend and Miami businessman, as antisemitism envoy
The announcement on Truth Social Thursday night elicited a wave of antisemitic comments.
Donald Trump and Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun light a candle during an Oct. 7 remembrance event at the Trump National Doral Golf Club, in Doral, Florida, Oct. 7, 2024. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
(JTA) — President Donald Trump has selected a new special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, elevating a Miami businessman and fundraiser named Yehuda Kaploun to the role.
“Yehuda is a successful businessman, and staunch advocate for the Jewish Faith and the Rights of his people to live and worship free from persecution,” Trump said on Truth Social, announcing his selection. “With Anti-Semitism dangerously on the rise, Yehuda will be the strongest Representative for Americans and Jews across the Globe, and promote PEACE. Congratulations Yehuda!”
Trump’s announcement elicited a wave of sharply antisemitic comments on the social network, which Trump owns and is favored by his supporters. “No one believes Anti-Semitism is an issue but the Zionists. I will criticize our Greatest Enemy when ever I want,” wrote one commenter.
Said another: “Combat anti-semitism? Don’t people have the Constitutional right to like and hate who they like? What kind of name is Yehuda anyhow? Doesn’t sound American to me.”
Kaploun is affiliated with Chabad, the Orthodox movement, and was a fundraiser and surrogate for Trump during last year’s campaign. He appeared with Trump at a ceremony in Florida to mark the one year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Asked before the election by Mishpacha Magazine, an Orthodox publication, about whether he was eyeing a position in a potential Trump administration, he demurred. “I’m not thinking about a position,” Kaploun said in an interview. He added, “What’s important to me is to do everything in my power to help Trump win, so that we — Jews everywhere — can feel safer.”
The role, which requires Senate confirmation and was elevated in recent years to the ambassador level, is the United States’ top position related to fighting antisemitism and has responsibility primarily for what happens overseas. Kaploun, who initially got connected to Trump through Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, the Jewish Republican megadonors, offered a clear sense in the Mishpacha interview of where he believes the greatest threat to Jews lies.
“Democrats are afraid to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terror’ while Trump says it openly,” Kaploun said. “He speaks fearlessly about the threat of Iran and makes clear that its goal is to destroy the United States. This when Democrats refuse to even recognize the butchers of women and kidnappers of children as terrorists. How can you go along with that?”
He also presented a grim view of antisemitism in the United States. “Our situation is similar to that of Jews in 1930s Germany, on the eve of Kristallnacht,” he said. “They, too, lived in peace and quiet until the ground shook under their feet. And in the United States, the ground is already shaking.”
If confirmed, Kaploun would join an administration that has cited antisemitism in rolling out a range of new policies, including around canceling the visas of students involved in pro-Palestinian protests, freezing federal funding to colleges and universities and monitoring the social media feeds of immigrants.
He would replace Deborah Lipstadt, a historian of antisemitism, who occupied the role in the Biden administration. During her tenure, the office expanded significantly and also broadened its focus to tackle antisemitism in the United States as well as abroad.
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