The US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism should not be scrapped, as Ira Forman’s legacy shows
Campaign Against Antisemitism strictly confines its output to antisemitism in the United Kingdom, leaving antisemitism elsewhere in the world to our Everyday Antisemitism project, which reports daily on antisemitic incidents across the globe, and is well worth visiting and subscribing to. However, sometimes events overseas impact the fight against antisemitism in Britain. Today is such an occasion.
Bloomberg has reported that due to budgetary considerations, the United States of America is considering removing various special envoy positions, including that of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. Whilst Special Envoy positions may sound like an extravagance, we formed a very successful relationship with the last Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, Ira Forman.
Over meetings with Special Envoy Forman in Brussels and London, Campaign Against Antisemitism helped to create an understanding that the one of the most effective ways in which the United States of America could help Jews around the world would be to pursue the adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism. This is a cause which Special Envoy Forman embraced wholeheartedly. He brought the gravitas that the United States of America commands to international negotiations. One of Special Envoy Forman’s legacies is his involvement in the adoption by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of the International Definition of Antisemitism. He also helped to secure support from 56 of the 57 member states of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe for adopting the definition, with only Russia disgracefully blocking its adoption.
The Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism is a hugely valuable asset to Jewish communities around the world, not only in Britain, but particularly in countries where smaller Jewish communities struggle to find a champion who will fend off their oppressors.
We hope that the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism will be one of the Special Envoy posts to survive the budget cuts under consideration.