The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) welcomed on Monday the appointment of former U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Elan S. Carr — a member of the CAM Advisory Board — to serve as the next CEO of the Israeli-American Council (IAC).
“We are incredibly proud of Elan Carr’s appointment as the new CEO of the IAC,” CAM CEO Sacha Roytman Dratwa stated. “With his distinguished record of getting results and building bridges in every role he’s held, including as an invaluable member of the CAM Advisory Board, we know Elan is the perfect choice to help the IAC reach new heights in its vital mission of fostering Israeli and Jewish identity and further strengthening the enduring bonds linking the United States and Israel, and we look forward to continued collaboration in the years ahead.”
Carr will officially assume the CEO position on October 1, taking over from Shoham Nicolet, who held the role for the last eight years.
As special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism from 2019 to 2021, Carr served as the senior diplomatic representative of the U.S. and the senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on the subject of antisemitism, and he directed U.S. policy and programs aimed at combating it. During his time in office, Carr negotiated groundbreaking agreements with foreign governments; convened the first-ever U.S. government-sponsored conference on combating online hate; drove the establishment of important new policies on anti-Zionism, anti-Israel discrimination, and campus anti-semitism; significantly broadened the global consensus on the definition of antisemitism; focused the attention of law enforcement leaders across international jurisdictions on the importance of hate crimes prosecutions; regularly met with foreign leaders, often in foreign capitals, to drive U.S. policy priorities; launched philosemitism initiatives in multiple countries; and conducted an aggressive and global public diplomacy campaign, including by delivering more than 180 speeches to large gatherings of stakeholders throughout the world and conducting numerous press interviews.
Prior to his tenure at the State Department, Carr prosecuted violent felony crimes for more than a decade as a deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County.
A married father of three, Carr is also an officer in the United States Army Reserve, and he has received multiple honors for his two decades of military service. In 2003-04, Carr spent nearly a year on military deployment in Iraq.
Carr, the son of a Jewish refugee from Iraq, speaks Hebrew and the Iraqi dialect of Arabic.
