When Deborah Lipstadt returned to academia last year after nearly three years navigating the State Department as the U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, she had a new mission: to turn what she learned in government into a training ground for the next generation of policymakers confronting antisemitism.

Lipstadt, a longtime Emory University historian, announced last week the launch of the Emory Policy Institute on Countering Antisemitism. The institute will pair undergraduate fellowships with summer internships in Washington; offer seminars for diplomats, journalists and policymakers; and track how governments are implementing the Global Guidelines for Countering Antisemitism that Lipstadt helped develop while serving as special envoy under President Joe Biden.

“In academia, professors think they’re right more often than not. Very often they are right in their assessments. But in diplomacy, you want to be effective. Sometimes you’ve got to compromise, narrow your view and adapt without losing sight of what you want to do,” Lipstadt told Jewish Insider in an interview on Thursday.  

Building off that “narrow focus” is what distinguishes EPICA from a crowded field of university antisemitism centers, Lipstadt said. 

“I didn’t want to be a kolboinik like some of these other institutions,” she told JI, using the Yiddish word for a jack-of-all-trades. “There are people doing research on antisemitism in the Muslim world in the seventh century. There are people doing research on antisemitism in imperial Russia — all important topics to know. But that was not what I wanted. I wanted to be laser focused on policymaking.”  

As special envoy from 2022-2025, Lipstadt frequently argued that antisemitism is not only a threat to Jews and Jewish institutions, but a broader danger that also imperils democracy, the rule of law and international stability.

She said the three focus areas of EPICA aim to address that notion. The student internships will span a wide range of fields in Washington, from Capitol Hill offices to social media companies. The summer internships will be fully funded, covering housing, travel and a stipend, to ensure that students can participate regardless of their financial circumstances.

The institute also plans to hold seminars in the U.S. and Europe for diplomats, journalists and policymakers, working with existing NGOs to educate emerging leaders about antisemitism.

The third focus will be monitoring the implementation of the Global Guidelines, an initiative of Lipstadt’s office during her final year as special envoy, which continue to be utilized by the Trump administration. While numerous countries signed onto the guidelines, Lipstadt said some of the signatories have not followed through in their commitments under the framework, and EPICA will track which governments are adhering to them.

Aaron Keyak, who served as Lipstadt’s deputy special envoy, will serve as the executive director of EPICA. “We’re going to be taking the academically rigorous approach that an Emory University student would take to their research,” Keyak told JI. 

Lipstadt said she launched EPICA due to urging from peers, along with the support of Emory.

“When I was finishing up in January 2025, a number of people — some academics, some government officials — said to me that I had a very unique perspective on things,” Lipstadt told JI. “They said now that I’m out of Washington, it can’t just be interesting stories I’m telling at dinner parties or the Shabbos table.”