(RNS) — American Jews are split over President Donald Trump’s combative tactics to address antisemitism.
Some on the right welcome the administration’s efforts to deny elite universities billions of dollars in funding and deport foreign students allegedly involved in anti-Israel campus protests — all in the name of fighting antisemitism. On the left, many American Jews are appalled, saying such attacks on colleges and universities will not protect Jews.
Deborah Lipstadt, the noted antisemitism scholar who served as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism under former President Joe Biden, occupies a unique position in the political middle: respected, for the most part, by both right and left.
Now, she is returning to Emory University in Atlanta, where she taught for nearly 30 years, and will start a center for studying policies to combat antisemitism.
Lipstadt famously won the libel lawsuit brought against her in 2000 in the U.K. by fellow historian David Irving, whom she called a Holocaust denier. The case was made into a 2016 movie, “Denial,” with actress Rachel Weisz portraying Lipstadt.
Now 78, she is proud of her accomplishments as antisemitism envoy — a position elevated to the rank of ambassador under Biden — and is ready to continue the fight.
RNS caught up with her last week via phone to ask how she views Trump’s strong-arm tactics on antisemitism and Israel’s ongo …