The U.S. Senate confirmed Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies Deborah Lipstadt to serve as the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism on March 30. Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Kristin Johnson was also confirmed on March 28 as one of four new commissioners of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Deborah Lipstadt
Under her new positon, which has the rank of ambassador in the Department of State, Lipstadt will work to advance U.S. foreign policy on antisemitism by developing and implementing new policies and projects. The special envoy’s office was created by the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004.
In a March 31 press release, Emory University President Greg Fenves said that “there is no person more qualified” for the position than Lipstadt.
“During a time when antisemitism is on the rise across the country and world, she is the leader our nation needs to help us overcome and transform hatred through her peerless knowledge, scholarship and expertise,” Fenves said.
There has been a recent surge in antisemetic terrorist attacks in Israel, the latest of which was on March 29 when a Palestinian gunman shot and killed five people in a Tel Aviv suburb. The shooting was the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel in eight years and the fifth attack in less than two weeks, bringing the death toll of recent days to 11.
President Joseph Biden nominated Lipstadt for the position in July 2021.
“I am grateful to President Biden for nominating me, the Senate of the United States for unanimously confirming me and to all those who have supported me,” Lipstadt wrote in a March 31 email to the Wheel. “I am particularly grateful to Emory University for the support it has shown me over decades. I feel blessed to be part of the Emory community.”
Her confirmation took eight months to finalize after being postponed several times due to Republican opposition. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has been a leading voice in the fight against Lipstadt’s confirmation after she critiqued him via Twitter for saying he was not concerned about the Jan. 6 insurrection of the Capitol, but would have been “a little concerned” if the rioters were members of the Black Lives Matter movement. On March 14, 2021, Lipstadt tweeted a link to an article about the controversy and wrote “this is white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple.”
Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish History and Holocaust Studies Deborah Lipstadt will serve as the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism. Photo courtesy of Emory University
Lipstadt testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February. During her testimony, Lipstadt discussed the importance of combatting antisemitism, referencing the Jan. 15 attack and hostage situation on a synagogue in Colleyville, Texas as an example. She said it was “no isolated incident.”
“Increasingly, Jews have been singled out for slander, violence and terrorism,” Lipstadt said in her testimony. “Today’s rise in antisemitism is staggering. It is especially alarming that we witness such a surge less than eight decades after one out of three Jews on Earth was murdered.”
She added that her “only regret about this great honor” is having to leave her students behind. Lipstadt said she will be out of the classroom “for the next few years.”
“I shall miss my students but I hope they will learn from me from afar,” Lipstadt said.
Lipstadt has taught at Emory since 1993. In 1996, she was sued for libel in the United Kingdom for accusing Author and World War II Historian David Irving of being a Holocaust denier in her 1993 book “Denying the Holocaust.” She won the years-long case in 2000 and subseuqently wrote the book “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier” on the experience. The book was adapted into the 2016 film “Denial.”
She previously served as a member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on Religious Persecution Abroad and was appointed by former President Bill Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. In 2021, Lipstadt served as an expert witness in the civil lawsuit against the organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” demonstration in Charlottesville, Va.
Despite her personal experiences with antisemitism, Lipstadt commended the U.S. government for recognizing “Jew-hatred as a serious global challenge,” which she hopes to “fight … worldwide, without fear or favor.”
“My parents were immigrants to this exceptional republic,” Lipstadt said in her testimony. “They embedded in their children a love for country, a rock-solid Jewish identity and the belief that we could achieve great things. But they certainly never imagined that one of their children could be nominated for an ambassadorship — and one that speaks of our republic’s determination to confront a hatred that defies our founding ideals.”
Kristin Johnson
As a commissioner on the CFTC, Johnson will help regulate the U.S. derivatives markets. The CFTC is dedicated to protecting the public from fraud related to the sale of commodities through investigation and prosecution. The group also works to foster “open, competitive and financially sound futures and option markets.”
Johnson was nominated by Biden in September 2021 and testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry in February. In a March 29 press release, CFTC Chairman Rostin Benham wrote that Johnson’s confirmation, among the three other commissioners, allows the CTFC to have the “most diverse set of Commissioners in the agency’s history.”
“The American people will be well served by having a full commission that can openly debate significant policy issues in an ever-changing derivatives and financial landscape,” Benham said.
Her term will expire in April 2025.
Johnson did not respond for comment by press time.
Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law Kristin Johnson will serve as one of four new commissioners of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Photo courtesy of Emory University
She has worked at the Emory School of Law since early 2021 and is recognized globally as an export on financial markets regulation and corporate governance, compliance and risk management. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and an American Bar Foundation Fellow. She is also Chair-elect of the Securities Regulation Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She previously served as an Associate Dean and McGlinchey Stafford Professor of Law at Tulane University Law School (La.).
During her testimony, Johnson said she became interested in finance when she was young. She explained that the global financial markets “play an essential role in the domestic economy and impact the daily lives of Americans,” as they influence the costs of energy, crops and manufactured items.
“It is critical that these markets, which often serve as an important risk management tool for end-users, work effectively,” Johnson said in her testimony. “To that end, the CFTC is a champion of the public interest, and its robust enforcement program monitors markets to protect against fraud and manipulation.”
Johnson added that public service is “among the highest callings.”
“If confirmed, I will offer my experience and expertise in service of ensuring the CFTC’s continued leadership in fostering open, fair, competitive and financially sound markets,” Johnson said in her testimony. “I understand the importance of listening and look forward to visiting with commercial market participants and end-users such as agricultural stakeholders.”
Madi Olivier is from Highland Village, Texas, and is majoring in psychology and minoring in rhetoric, writing and information design. Outside of the Wheel, she is involved in psychology research and works for the Trevor Project. In her free time, you can find her trying not to fall while bouldering and watching Criminal Minds with her cat.
