Elan Carr was appointed by the President of the United States and the Secretary of State to the office of United States Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. In that capacity, Mr. Carr served as the senior diplomatic representative of the United States and the senior advisor to Secretary Pompeo on the subject of anti-Semitism, and he directed U.S. policy and programs aimed at combating it. During his two years in office, he 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 anti-Semitism; focused the attention of law enforcement leaders across international jurisdictions on the importance of hate crimes prosecutions; launched philo-Semitism initiatives in multiple countries; regularly met with foreign leaders, often in foreign capitals, to drive U.S. policy priorities; 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. He was voted by Congress to be given the rank of Ambassador. 

Prior to joining the Trump Administration, Mr. Carr prosecuted violent felony crimes for more than a decade asa Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles County. He prosecuted murders, attempted murders, and casesinvolving Southern California’s most notorious criminal street gangs. While assigned to a special victim unit,he focused on sexual assault, domestic violence, and child molestation crimes. A number of his cases garnered media attention. He was also one of LA County’s few specially-designated animal cruelty prosecutors.

Mr. Carr is an officer in the United States Army Reserve and has received multiple awards for his two decades of military service. In 2003-04, he spent nearly a year on military deployment in Iraq. He helped to lead a jointanti-terrorism team in life-saving missions throughout the country, and he prosecuted terrorists who attackedU.S. troops. He was also part of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s efforts to establish an independent Iraqi Judiciary and helped to train Iraqi judges on constitutional law and criminal defense.

As the son of Jewish refugees from Iraq, Mr. Carr speaks Hebrew and the Iraqi dialect of Arabic. While in Iraq,he met with remnants of the Jewish community there and worked with them to preserve Jewish texts and other property. He regularly led Jewish services in the former presidential palace of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. 

In 2014, Mr. Carr was the Republican nominee for Congress in California’s 33rd Congressional District. He finished first out of 18 candidates in a multi-party, top-two, open primary; and in the general election, he out performed GOP registration in his district by 18 points. He received the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Gun” status—its highest rating—and was endorsed by the House leadership, the LosAngeles County Police Chiefs, and the previous two Republican nominees for President of the United States.

Mr. Carr was the international president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, he served on the National Council of AIPAC, he was a voting member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and he was aboard member of Operation Gratitude, a charity that supports deployed military servicemembers.

Mr. Carr is married to Dr. Dahlia T. Carr, a rheumatologist in private practice, and they have three children,Hannah, Rachelle, and Samuel.