NJ Representative Chris Smith Authored Legislation Creating an Anti-Semitism Special Envoy Gives More Clout to Address the Alarming Rise in Anti-Semitism Worldwide

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, at the very last legislative session of the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed legislation authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) that would elevate the State Department’s Anti-Semitism Special Envoy position—first created by Smith’s legislative provisions in 2004—to an Ambassadorship, giving more clout to address the alarming rise in anti-Semitism worldwide. As the Senate has already approved the amended legislation, the bill now heads to President Trump’s desk to be signed into law.

“We’ve seen a rapid rise in anti-Semitic acts and rhetoric in many countries over the past decade: Jews harassed, assaulted and even murdered; synagogues attacked; graves and cemeteries desecrated; anti-Semitic slurs; and targeting the State of Israel with what my friend, the great Soviet refusenik and religious prisoner Natan Sharansky, calls the ‘three Ds’– demonization, double-standard, and de-legitimization,” said Smith.

“My new law will raise the Special Envoy to the rank of Ambassador, and enable him or her to report directly to the Secretary of State,” Smith said. “That will give the Special Envoy more seniority and diplomatic access—both inside the U.S. Government and when engaging foreign governments—that is needed do the job effectively.”

“Especially with the rise of on-line anti-Semitism, we see that hate abroad easily crosses borders and impacts our communities here at home. Now more than ever we need to integrate our efforts both in the United States and abroad to stop the hate and keep our communities safe,” said Smith, a founding member of both the House Anti-Semitism Caucus and the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Antisemitism, which is comprised of legislative-branch members from Israel, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Smith’s bill, the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act (H.R. 221), will ensure that the U.S. leadership position in fighting anti-Semitism worldwide—the Special Envoy at the State Department—would not only be promptly filled, but would be strengthened. The position, as well as the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, was created and required by Smith’s original provisions of the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. Smith’s new bill would also mandate the timely nomination of a Special Envoy.