In one of his first speeches since being nominated as U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun, outlined on Monday a firm vision for holding promoters and silent facilitators of Jew-hatred accountable.
“President Trump made it clear: If a university tolerates antisemitism, it loses its funding. If a student visa holder advocates for terror, they lose their visa. Europe must follow suit,” he said at the European Jewish Association (EJA) conference in Madrid, Spain.
He referenced the $2.2 billion in funding withheld from Harvard University by the Trump administration, which froze that money in grants and contracts after the university rejected demands to address antisemitism and other concerns.
“When universities allow ‘Jew-free zones’ and refuse to condemn terror, there must be consequences,” said Kaploun.
“We must make it unfashionable to hate,” he said. “If you’re an elected official and you’re not willing to protect every citizen—including Jewish citizens—you don’t deserve the role.”
Trump “laid out very, very clearly the steps that would be needed to happen to combat antisemitism on college campuses,” said Kaploun. “He clearly, for the first time, used the term Islamic Jihad as a threat to the world and to democracies around the globe.”
The president also said he would “make those changes and would support Israel with all their requests, also militarily, and he would throw himself into the hostage situation,” Kaploun added. He noted the release of Edan Alexander, a dual citizen of the United States and Israel, following talks between Hamas, the United States and Qatar.
“We started Sunday with 59 hostages. Some are alive, the bodies of others. But today, we stand at 58. And I can tell you that there was not one meeting with the president of the United States, with any of his staff, that the question was not asked, what are we doing about the hostage situation?” said Kaploun.
The name of the conference, which united Jewish leaders from across Europe and beyond, was “Building or Leaving—Decision Time for Europe’s Jews.”
Kaploun, who said he is speaking in his personal capacity because his nomination has not yet been confirmed, had advice regarding this dilemma.
“Build, don’t leave. Teach them that our success is our greatest revenge. We can do this together and we can fight antisemitism together and we can change the world,” he said.
