Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun is scheduled for a confirmation hearing to be the Trump administration’s antisemitism envoy on Wednesday, a last-minute addition to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee schedule.

Kaploun, an Orthodox Jewish businessman and Chabad rabbi, was a Trump campaign surrogate during the 2024 campaign and, though he has not yet been confirmed, has been a frequent fixture at D.C.-area events focused on combating antisemitism since he was first nominated for the post in April and has met with other Trump administration officials.

The previous special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, told Jewish Insider on Tuesday, “I wish him great good luck, for his sake and for ours. He has a challenging task in front of him as we witness antisemitism emanating from all ends of the political spectrum. Irrespective of one’s politics, we should all hope for his success.” 

Kaploun co-authored an op-ed in the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in May with his two predecessors, Lipstadt and Elan Carr, following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington — a show of bipartisan alignment on the issue of combating antisemitism.

“Above all, irrespective of where you stand on the political spectrum — left, right, center — do not use antisemitism as a political weapon to achieve other goals. That will only serve to debase and weaken our fight against this terrible scourge. This fight must be bipartisan and non-political,” the piece reads. “Now is the time for all to rise to the occasion in the face of a grave threat to us all. Our collective future depends on our success.”

The op-ed endorses the Global Guidelines to Counter Antisemitism, an international compact promulgated under Lipstadt’s leadership, and indicates that the current administration plans to continue that effort.

It goes on to describe antisemitism as a threat to the rule of law, security and society, and raises concerns about the “normalization of antisemitic rhetoric” on both sides of the aisle, and in anti-Israel activism.

The leaders of various mainstream Jewish organizations including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee have urged Senate leaders to move ahead with the confirmation process and move quickly to fill the post.

But Kaploun’s nomination is likely to encounter at least some resistance among Democrats: Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), a co-chair of the Congressional Jewish Caucus, urged Senate Democrats not to support Kaploun earlier this year, describing him as “divisive.”

State Department civil servants have continued to operate the office during the time that the ambassador role has been vacant, since the end of the Biden administration.

Several other nominees are also scheduled to appear at the hearing, including State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, nominated to be the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations.