April 6, 2020 — New York
Holly Huffnagle has been appointed U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism at the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
“The resurgence of antisemitism in the United States, evidenced in AJC’s pathbreaking survey of American Jews last fall, calls for stepped up monitoring and action. We are delighted that Holly Huffnagle will be AJC’s U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism. She has the knowledge, experience, and drive to enhance and expand our efforts in combating all forms of antisemitism,” said AJC CEO David Harris.
Huffnagle joined the AJC staff in 2018 as Assistant Director of AJC Los Angeles, overseeing projects and programs related to monitoring and combating antisemitism, and outreach to the diplomatic community.
“I am honored to lead AJC’s response to rising antisemitism in the United States,” said Huffnagle. “Antisemitism is more than a Jewish problem. Rather, it threatens America’s most cherished democratic values. The decision to create this office not only demonstrates AJC’s strong, enduring commitment to protect Jewish communities, but also reflects resoluteness in defending the dignity and rights of all Americans.”
Huffnagle previously served as the policy advisor to the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the U.S. Department of State, and as a researcher in the Mandel Center of Advanced Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.
She received a master’s degree from Georgetown University, where she focused on 20th-century Polish history and Jewish-Muslim relations before, during, and after the Holocaust. Most recently, she was a Scholar-in-Residence at Oxford University’s Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.
She has lived and worked in Poland to conduct research on ethnic minority relations before World War II, and was selected for the Auschwitz Jewish Center fellowship on pre-war Jewish life and the Holocaust in Poland and northern Slovakia. She has volunteered at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim, Poland, and served as a liaison for the Jan Karski Educational Foundation.
Huffnagle received her B.A. in History from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA. In fall 2017, she co-led Westmont College’s Europe Semester Program, teaching courses in Europe on the Holocaust and contemporary European challenges, including antisemitism and Jewish community security.
