Reflecting on the end of her tenure, Deborah Lipstadt said that after the Hamas attack on Israel and the devastating war in Gaza, anti-Semitism had become “almost normal.”
When Deborah Lipstadt was named the Biden administration's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism abroad, she began by visiting Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for what she called inspiring exchanges with the leaders of the two Muslim countries.
She hoped that Gulf leaders could use their voices to help stop anti-Semitism among Muslims around the world.
“It was all very promising,” said Dr. Lipstadt, who was a historian and researcher of anti-Semitism and genocide before taking the post, which was promoted to ambassador in 2022. “I think there was a real conversation going on.”
Then on October 7, 2023, came the Hamas-led attack on Israel.
It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Nazi genocide of World War II. Israel’s devastating response unfolded over the next 15 months, a war that left tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza dead, almost the entire population of more than two million internally displaced, and the area in ruins.
“October 7, of course, changed everything,” Dr. Lipstadt said in Jerusalem in January, shortly before her term ended.
Now Dr. Lipstadt is back teaching at Emory University as a professor emeritus and writing a memoir about her experiences serving the former president. She turned down an offer to teach a course next year at Columbia University.
