President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he is nominating Yehuda Kaploun, an Orthodox Jewish businessman, Chabad rabbi and Trump campaign surrogate as his administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Kaploun helped with the Trump campaign’s outreach to the Jewish community during his 2024 campaign, including a high-profile event, backed by Dr. Miriam Adelson, where Trump courted Jewish voters in Washington.

According to an article in Mishpacha Magazine, Kaploun helped lead outreach to the Orthodox and wider Jewish communities. He said that his work with the Trump campaign was driven by rising antisemitism and the increasingly insecure place of American Jews in society.

“Just a year ago, no one would have believed that Jews would be afraid to be openly Jewish in the United States,” Kaploun told Mishpacha. “The fact that Jews are afraid in progressive universities shows that the United States is going down a dark path.”

“Our situation is similar to that of Jews in 1930s Germany, on the eve of Kristallnacht,” Kaploun said in the article. “They, too, lived in peace and quiet until the ground shook under their feet. And in the United States, the ground is already shaking.”

Trump described Kaploun as a “successful businessman, and staunch advocate for the Jewish faith and the Rights of his people to live and worship free from persecution. With Anti-Semitism dangerously on the rise, Yehuda will be the strongest Representative for Americans and Jews across the Globe, and promote PEACE.”

Kaploun told Jewish Insider he’s “both humbled and honored that the President chose me to represent him and assist him to combat antisemitism and hatred in America and globally.”

In the Mishpacha interview, Kaploun blamed the rising antisemitism in the United States — which he said made parts of the country more dangerous for visibly identifiable Jews than Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates — on President Joe Biden who “won’t even make a statement about combating anti-Semitism.” Kaploun said he has also been invited to speak in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Kaploun described Trump as a “true friend” of Israel and the Jewish community. The two are longtime acquaintances through the business world.

“Democrats are afraid to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terror’ while Trump says it openly,”  Kaploun told Mishpacha. “He speaks fearlessly about the threat of Iran and makes clear that its goal is to destroy the United States. This when Democrats refuse to even recognize the butchers of women and kidnappers of children as terrorists. How can you go along with that?”

He said that his interest in public service and philanthropy is driven by a long family tradition.

Kaploun told The Jerusalem Post during the campaign that he might be interested in a role in Trump’s administration, should it be sufficiently impactful.

“If I feel that what he’d like me to do will have an impact on the global picture of how Jews are seen and treated, I’d absolutely consider it,” he said. “But it has to be meaningful. I’m not interested in being a ‘Jewish liaison’ or a token representative. If I take a position, it’ll be something trailblazing.”

The antisemitism envoy post, which carries the rank of ambassador and deals exclusively with international antisemitism issues, requires Senate confirmation. Kaploun will succeed former Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, a well-known Holocaust historian.

Kaploun has been a business leader in the field of atmospheric water generation — pulling water from the humidity in the air — and has advised businesses, political leaders and others in the U.S. and Israel in political and government affairs matters, according to a public biography.

He has said he has worked behind the scenes on Jewish causes for years.

Alongside Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, he founded a charity assisting special needs children and their families, according to the biography, and assisted in the responses to the 9/11 attacks and natural disasters. The Mishpacha article describes Kaploun as a “close friend” of Wiesel. The charity has earned recognition from congressional and New York leaders.

Kaploun also has longtime links to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and was an advisor to Adelson, an individual familiar with Kaploun told JI.

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) said that Kaploun’s “legacy of leadership and service has uplifted countless individuals in the Jewish community. His wise counsel is frequently sought out by prominent business and political leaders across both the United States and Israel, including President Trump.”

Diaz-Balart said that Kaploun would be “a steadfast voice in defending the Jewish community, confronting antisemitism head-on, and holding accountable those who spread hatred and bigotry. It is a true honor and privilege to be his friend.”

He described Kaploun’s leadership as critical at a time of rising antisemitism.

“The RJC is excited to congratulate Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun on his nomination to serve as Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, and we thank President Donald J. Trump for his unwavering commitment to forcefully confront antisemitism at home and abroad,” Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks said in a statement. “We look forward to working with Rabbi Kaploun to continue fighting against the world’s oldest hatred.”

The Orthodox Union likewise praised Trump’s pick in a statement: “During these troubling hate-filled times, this is a critical role which Yehuda will fill with pride in our faith and values and confidence in the positive Jewish contribution to every country and society in which we reside. We commend President Trump for this nomination and applaud the high priority he and his Administration have placed upon fighting antisemitism. We look forward to working with the nominee in service of the Jewish community and the bedrock American value of religious freedom.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the House Jewish Caucus, urged every Senate Democrat to oppose Kaploun over his comments claiming that Democrats refused to call out antisemitism or the Hamas attackers.

“The irony is not lost on me that the Trump Administration — that already contains antisemites in its ranks — is seeking to add a divisive figure like Rabbi Kaploun as its antisemitism czar,” Nadler said in a statement. 

He also criticized Kaploun for his reported involvement in the D.C. event where Trump said that Jews would “have a lot to do with” it if he lost the election.

Nadler said that Kaploun’s claims that Biden refused to call out antisemitism are “insulting” and “couldn’t be farther from the truth,” and that claims that Democrats refused to call Hamas terrorists are “absurd and insulting” and “disqualifying” and do “not deserve a response.”

Decades ago, in 2006, Nadler delivered a House floor speech praising Kaploun and the special needs charity that he started.

A variety of individuals had been floated for the antisemitism czar role, including former Deputy Special Envoy Ellie Cohanim, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, attorney Alan Dershowitz and former New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind. Kaploun doesn’t have the same public profile. 

Some of those figures had controversial and divisive public records that could have made confirmation and their subsequent relationships with the Jewish community difficult.

Cohanim could be in contention for the job of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, which is once again open after Trump asked Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) to withdraw her nomination.

Cohanim congratulated Kaploun on X and said he “will serve our country well.”