Lipstadt Returns to Emory as Distinguished Professor
Appointment comes after serving as the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat global antisemitism.
Deborah Lipstadt, the distinguished Emory University professor who joined the Biden Administration effort to combat antisemitism globally, is expected to return to the university next month. But she’s coming back to a new appointment as an Emory University Distinguished Professor. Only four other individuals, most notably former President Jimmy Carter, have been so honored. She’ll also come back to her old job as Dorot Professor of Jewish and Holocaust Studies in the Department of Religion.
Across generations, Deborah Lipstadt has served our nation and society at the very highest level,” Emory President Gregory L. Fenves said. “Whatever her title has been — professor, teacher, author, ambassador — Dr. Lipstadt has combatted hate through scholarship and education. She is courageous, brilliant and an Emory legend through and through. I am proud that she will return to Emory holding the title of University Distinguished Professor.”
Lipstadt was sworn in to her job at the State Department in Washington in May of 2022 in the midst of rising antisemitism in both America and the world. That has only accelerated after Oct. 7, 2023.
During the resulting military campaign in Gaza by Israel’s army forces, the worldwide Jewish community has seen a highly orchestrated propaganda campaign against Israel. Anti-Jewish hatred often has accompanied anti-Israel demonstrations.
As a special envoy, with the rank of ambassador, she visited nearly three dozen countries. In Argentina last July, she outlined a series of 11 steps a nation could take to counter antisemitism. They urged governments and international organizations to “adopt and implement strategies and action plans to engage” antisemitism at all levels of society and to protect Jewish communities from physical threats and attacks.
So far, 40 nations plus the European Union and the Organization of American States have signed on as supporter of the guidelines.
Yet, the Anti-Defamation League, in its annual report that was released last month, maintains that 46 percent of the world’s adults believe “deeply entrenched” antisemitic attitudes, a figure that has doubled over the past 10 years. The study was based on an 11-question survey given to 58,000 people in 103 and countries and territories.
Chief executive of the ADL Jonathan Greenblatt described the statistic as “deeply alarming.”
“Antisemitism is nothing short of a global emergency, especially in a post-Oct. 7 world,” Greenblatt said. “It’s clear that we need new government interventions, more education, additional safeguards on social media and new security protocols to prevent antisemitic hate crimes.”
In an editorial on the Voice of America last fall, Lipstadt was quoted as saying we are “now witnessing the biggest surge in antisemitism that we’ve seen worldwide in many decades.”
The editorial went on to say that Ambassador Lipstadt has stressed that the United States sees this “tsunami of antisemitism as not just a threat to Jews. … but we see it as something larger, with great implications for democratic values, democratic governments, humanity, national stability, even national security.”
At the beginning of last year, Georgia’s legislature passed, by a wide margin, a bill that added a widely recognized definition of antisemitism to Georgia law. HB 30, which was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, gave legal standing to the definition used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The definition is now applied to all those committing antisemitism violations.
Lipstadt is expected to continue to be a prominent public voice in the discussion about antisemitism in this country and elsewhere in the world.
Under her new agreement she will give an annual public lecture and meet with undergraduates at least once each semester. She will also serve as an advisor to Emory president and the dean of Emory College.
She first came to Emory 32 years ago as the founding director of the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies and she promptly became deeply involved in the subject of Holocaust denial. The issue resulted in a case involving David Irving, a Holocaust denier in Britain. The 10-week trial was the subject of an Academy Award-winning film in 2016 entitled, “Denial,” which starred Rachel Weisz as the Emory professor.
She’s likely to continue writing about her experiences and to be an influential academic influence in exploring the history and challenges that antisemitism presents today.
“I am excited to bring what I have learned during my time with the State Department back to Emory to help teach the next generation of scholars and leaders,” Lipstadt says. “When my nomination was announced, I said that the one thing I would miss was being in the classroom with my Emory students. Now, I look forward to returning to campus to resume the crucial task of supporting students.”
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