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June 11, 2007
Emory’s Lipstadt appointed to U.S. delegation on discrimination

by elaine justice

Professor Deborah Lipstadt has been appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a member of a United States delegation to a conference June 7-8 in Bucharest, Romania, on Combating Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding, sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Lipstadt, director of Emory’s Tam Institute for Jewish Studies and Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies, is one of nine members of the delegation, which is headed by U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia.

In 2005, Lipstadt represented President George W. Bush as a member of the official American delegation to the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. As an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, she helped design the section of the museum dedicated to the American response to the Holocaust. President Clinton appointed her to two consecutive terms on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. From 1996 through 1999 she served as a member of the United States State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad. In this capacity she, together with a small group of leaders and scholars, advised Secretary of State Madeline Albright on matters of religious persecution abroad.

Lipstadt’s latest book, “History on Trial: My Day in Court with David Irving” (2005), is the story of her libel trial in London against David Irving who sued her for calling him a Holocaust denier and right wing extremist. Lipstadt first gained wide recognition for her book, “Denying the Holocaust: the Growing Assault on Truth and Memory” (1993), which was the first full-length study of those who attempt to deny the Holocaust. It was the subject of simultaneous front-page reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post and has been published in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

For more on Lipstadt’s participation in the delegation, go to: www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/may/85845.htm
or http://lipstadt.blogspot.com/.

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