More than two years into his administration, President Trump is set to name a Los Angeles prosecutor as his anti-Semitism envoy, a post many Jewish leaders and interfaith activists have repeatedly pleaded with the president to fill.
Elan Carr, 50, a US Army veteran who served in Iraq and was national president of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi, will be nominated by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to published reports.
The special envoy position advances US foreign policy on anti-Semitism. It was created in 2004, and President George W Bush appointed its first occupant two years later.
Last month, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill elevating the position to ambassador level. It also set a 90-day deadline for appointing an envoy. The Senate has not yet acted on the bill.
Many Jewish leaders, citing a spike in anti-Semitism worldwide, have long advocated for filling the position. Just last week, a Holocaust monument was vandalised in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Polish far-right nationalists demonstrated at Auschwitz during an annual ceremony marking the camp’s liberation.
Read the article by Yonat Shimron in Sight Magazine.