The Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism is a part of the Office of Religion and Global Affairs at the United States Department of State. The office "advocates U.S. policy on anti-Semitism both in the United States and internationally, develops and implements policies and projects to support efforts to combat anti-Semitism." Its responsibilities under federal law are:
"monitoring and combating acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement that occur in foreign countries";
"coordinating and assisting in the preparation of that portion of the report required by" federal law from the Secretary of State "relating to an assessment and description of the nature and extent of acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement for inclusion in the"
The head of the office is the Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating anti-Semitism. The position is sometimes referred to as the "anti-Semitism envoy." The Special Envoy post is required by statute to be filled. The post had been vacant from the beginning of the Trump administration through early 2019, leading to significant Congressional pressure to fill it. On February 5, 2019, Elan Carr was appointed to the position.
History
The Office was created by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. The first Special Envoy was Gregg Rickman, who was sworn in on May 22, 2006 and served until the end of the George W. Bush administration. Hannah Rosenthal served in the post under the Obama administration from November 23, 2009 to October 5, 2012. Rosenthal was praised for formalizing the office's work and criteria, and for her personal involvement against anti-Semitic acts globally, while also drawing criticism from her predecessor, Rickman, and early on from Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, for including Muslim community leaders in joint activities against religious hatred. Rosenthal was succeeded on an interim basis by an acting Special Envoy, career diplomat Michael Kozak, who had previously served as U.S. ambassador to Belarus. Kozak served in that role until Ira Forman, the former executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, was sworn in as Special Envoy on May 20, 2013; he served until Obama's term in office ended in January 2017. In June 2017, five months into the new Trump administration, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cast doubt on whether the post of Special Envoy would be filled during Trump's presidency. Members of the House and Senate publicly expressed concern that the position was unfilled and called for Trump to make an appointment, at the same time calling on Trump to fill the vacant position of White House Jewish Liaison. Congressional concern over the vacancy continued to grow throughout 2018 and early 2019. On February 5, 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the appointment of Elan Carr, a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney who had served as an active duty Army JAG Corps officer.
