The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday advanced the nomination of Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun to serve as the Trump administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, moving the Chabad-affiliated businessman one step closer to confirmation after a contentious, highly polarized fight over his past political statements.

Rabbi Kaploun cleared the panel in a bipartisan vote, with Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) joining all Republicans to send the nomination to the full Senate. If confirmed, he would be only the second Orthodox Jew ever approved for a senior administration post, following Mitchell Silk’s 2020 confirmation as an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department.

Eight Democrats — including Sens. Chris Coons, Chris Murphy, Tim Kaine, Jeff Merkley, Cory Booker, Brian Schatz, Chris Van Hollen and Tammy Duckworth — opposed the nomination, citing partisan remarks Rabbi Kaploun made in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

In a 2024 interview with Mishpacha magazine, Rabbi Kaploun blasted Democrats for their reluctance to confront Islamist extremism. “Democrats are afraid to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terror’ while Trump says it openly,” he said. “Democrats refuse to even recognize the butchers of women and kidnappers of children as terrorists. How can you go along with that?”

Rabbi Kaploun’s nomination has drawn notable support from mainstream Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Orthodox Union’s Advocacy Center. Agudath Israel of America issued a statement Wednesday praising the committee vote and urging swift Senate confirmation, calling Kaploun “deeply involved in Jewish issues and charitable causes” and saying he would “carry out his new responsibilities with dedication and distinction.”

Rabbi Kaploun — born in Israel, raised in Connecticut, and now based in Miami — would succeed Deborah Lipstadt, the prominent Holocaust scholar who served in the role during the Biden administration. Unlike Lipstadt, Rabbi Kaploun comes from the business world and has kept a relatively low public profile outside Orthodox Jewish circles.

At his November confirmation hearing, Kaploun emphasized education as the centerpiece of his strategy to counter global antisemitism. “We must educate, educate, educate about the history of the Jewish community in America and the Judeo-Christian values our country was founded on,” he told senators. “Antisemitism is anti-American. Those who chant ‘death to the Jews’ all too often chant ‘death to America.’”

The antisemitism envoy role, housed within the State Department, carries a mandate to monitor and confront antisemitic trends abroad — responsibilities that have grown in visibility as attacks on Jewish communities have surged since Oct. 7.

The committee on Wednesday also advanced another high-profile Trump nominee: State Department spokeswoman and former Fox Nation host Tammy Bruce, who was approved on a party-line vote to serve as deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Both nominations now move to the Senate floor, where vote margins will be tight.

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