The Anti-Defamation League has earned a reputation as the most powerful Israeli firm fighting against antisemitism and all forms of hate for more than a century. Its acronym, ADL, has “household name” status—and not just in Jewish houses. This makes its latest predilection for politics incredibly dangerous for, and beyond, the Jewish group.
Senate Republicans learned last December that Adeel Mangi, a Joe Biden candidate for a lifetime criminal seat, had formerly served on the Center for Security, Race and Rights at Rutgers University Law School as a panel member and had a good follower. Mangi was questioned about his disturbing involvement with that organization and his understanding of its disgusting activities at his confirmation hearing. Just last week, it became clear that Mangi had collaborated strongly with the director of the center and others who had connections to hatred and terror.
But more than congratulate the senators ‘ issue, the ADL wonderfully accused them of bigotry. It decried supposed “inappropriate and discriminatory therapy” of Mangi that appeared to be “motivated by discrimination towards his faith “—Islam. In contrast to the actions and philosophy of the center, Manga’s belief and ethnicity were not mentioned in the questions.
The ADL accused Republican lawmakers of anti-Muslim partiality for daring to issue a nominee’s relationship with anti-Jewish bias. A more absurd execution of the ADL’s traditional goal is hard to imagine.
However, this was not a rare example of the ADL level a politically charged but ultimately incorrect prosecution. Nationalism is more prevalent in the institution, particularly since Jonathan Greenblatt left the Obama Administration to become its CEO in 2015.
Greenblatt’s background is somewhat lacking in an advanced Israeli education, especially regarding how Judaism itself has, for millennia, constantly identified antisemitism, the world’s “longest hatred“, using a natural yardstick. He has surrounded himself with want- thinking progressives, such that yesterday’s ADL views racism, like everything else, through a political camera.
In a post to Elon Musk’s X system, Greenblatt just compared racist comments by Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan and delinquents who verbally assaulted author Bari Weiss and Jerry Seinfeld in Manhattan.
CPAC has sponsored a” Shabbat at CPAC” system for observant Jews for years, held plenary sessions on hatred and the captives held by Hamas, and stated that it stands with Israel. To connect it with the very people it bans from attending, much less talking, is essentially deplorable—and significant. It deceives the millions of Americans who back CPAC and its policy jobs while stifling the efforts of CPAC’s leaders to fight racism.
And speaking of Musk, Greenblatt wondered if Twitter, as it was known at the time, may be shut down after Musk restored Donald Trump’s exposure to the program. Obviously, Greenblatt shared the viewpoint of X’s past owners, who thought Trump’s tweets were nasty, but deemed Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s calls for Hebrew genocide simply “foreign policy saber- rattling”.
This bears no resemblance to nonpartisan concern for antisemitism. The results were predictable: Musk is no antisemite, but his response to this gratuitous attack inadvertently elevated one.
The ADL is so concerned about vilifying conservatives that it even targets Jews who support traditional values. Chaya Raichik, the Orthodox Jewish woman behind Libs of TikTok, was targeted by the ADL‘s Center on Extremism last year, making her known as a proponent of “anti-transgender hate” until Raichik threatened to sue. The ADL immediately quailed, conceding by implication that its accusations were indefensible.
However, the National Center for Public Policy Research and the National Legal and Policy Center were both the subjects of a similar hit piece published in November by the same Center on Extremism. These organizations criticize supranational organizations like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, as well as their “globalist” goals.
Although the ADL readily admitted that the “globalist” language was consistent with what “mainstream personalities and politicians” use and that” there is no evidence to suggest that either organization’s … proposals were filed with antisemitic intentions”, the ADL insisted nonetheless that the word globalist” could be interpreted” (emphasis added ) as” an antisemitic dog whistle”, along with” conspiracy theories” that” sometimes promote antisemitism” (emphasis added ).
The ADL appears to have learned to use weasel words to avoid legal culpability rather than focusing on accuracy following the Raichik scandal.
This is particularly offensive given that Ethan Peck, a member of the National Center for Public Policy Research, is another Jew and Israeli-American who denounces globalists in part for funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The relief agency, of course, was lavishly funded from around the world as it taught Arab schoolchildren to murder Jews until the Israelis recently proved that the agency provided electrical power, internet connectivity, support, and terrorists for Hamas.
If the ADL truly believes Peck is blowing an antisemitic dog whistle, the problem is ADL’s hearing, not the decent, respected, and philo- semitic National Center for Public Policy Research. However, it seems more likely than not that the ADL knew its allegations were phony from the beginning given the careful language choices the ADL makes to disparage Peck and his organization.
The weaponized sectarianism of the ADL’s national headquarters undermines the fight against Jew- hatred, including efforts by its less ideology- driven ( and thus, more effective ) local offices to engage with law enforcement, legislators, and the public. First of all, this is true because those on the less fortunate side are silenced. How can Peck be a trustworthy advocate for Jews and their rights when the ADL suggests that the organization he serves is spreading antisemitic tropes?
And, still more dangerously, the ADL’s silence and even expressed tolerance for left- wing antisemitism permits that antisemitism to fester. Before BLM’s response to Hamas ‘ attack on Israel on October 7, the ADL legitimized organizations like Black Lives Matter that promoted antisemitic tropes. The ADL’s own definition of racism attributed it to white people before Whoopi Goldberg claimed the Holocaust was n’t about race. Leftist antisemites labeled the most politically sensitive group in history as having” white privilege,” while all of this happened while the ADL was being defended.
Greenblatt is now confronted by a reality that is fundamentally different from his ideology. Not the conservatives, but the conservatives who obstructed his antisemitic speech at Brown University. And, of course, to the Mangi- supported, antisemitic Rutgers Center, the ADL remains a den of reviled” Zionists”. The center’s director, Sahar Aziz, obtusely accused the ADL of “aligning itself with right- wing leaders”. The ADL denounced the ADL for engaging in “anti-Palestinian advocacy” just last month when the ADL correctly pointed out that American student organizations were supporting Hamas.
One of the many organizations that condemn antisemitism on both sides of the political spectrum is the Coalition for Jewish Values, which I am the managing director of. Our and the ADL’s efforts are being undermined by the ADL’s ideological bias, which cannot be ignored. While real wolves surround our Jewish communities, it is unconscionable that the ADL continues to cry wolf, causing harm to those who are favorable to Jews and Israel while true antisemites endanger America’s future.
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