צל עובר האט געשריבן:האט ער געקוואויט זייער טוויט און צוגעלייגט:
פון די ערשטע האלב האב איך הנאה ער האט זיי גוט אפגענטפערט די ADL מיינט אז זיי זענען בעל הבית אויף וואס עס איז אנטיסעמיטיזים און ווער עס איז אן אנטיסעמיט און אסאך האט מיט פאליטישע חשבונות סאו עס קומט זיך זיי פעטש
זעה זיין היפאקרעסי און מען זעהט קלאר אז פאליטיק איז אים וויכטיגער ווי אנטיסעמיטיזים וואס עס זעהט נישט אויס אז עס שטערט אים צו שטארק
און זעה צום סוף אין רויט זיין אייגענע אנטיסעמיטישע העצע
In 2016, Alex VanNess, writing for the New York Post, noted that under longtime chief Abe Foxman, the ADL largely remained true to its historical priority of combatting anti-Semitism. However, VanNess noted that under its new president, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL had moved “onto a partisan course at odds with this core mission.”[18]
Similarly, the New York Post editorial board wrote, “The Anti-Defamation League, a century-old Jewish civil-rights organization, has essentially become another J Street — an arm of the Democratic Party’s stable of pressure groups.”[19]
Echoing this criticism, in 2016, Isi Leibler, the former vice president and board of trustees chairman of the World Jewish Congress,[20] chastised Greenblatt for “tilting the ADL policy away from its primary mandate of combating anti-Semitism and steering it toward partisan social action issues.” Leibler wrote, “the ADL board has knowingly empowered” Greenblatt, whose “outlook is not only liberal but effectively represents an echo chamber of left-wing Democratic politics” and that Greenblatt had taken a number of partisan liberal political and policy positions similar to that of the liberal organization J Street.[21]
In January 2017 World Jewish Congress president Ronald S. Lauder criticized the ADL for “play[ing] politics” with President Donald Trump’s Holocaust Remembrance Day statement. According to Lauder, “manufactured outrage” implicitly typified by the ADL’s response to Trump’s statement reduces “public sensitivity to the real dangers of anti-Semitism” that confront the Jewish community.[22]
Controversies
ANTI-SEMITISM DOUBLE STANDARD
In recent years the ADL has been sharply accused of focusing the majority of its attention to anti-Semitism from right-wing extremists while largely ignoring or downplaying anti-Semitism from left-wing sources.
In 2017, the ADL issued a report detailing 36 individuals known for their anti-Semitic or hate-based positions. The report focused exclusively on right-wing extremists while completely ignoring any left-leaning anti-Semitic individuals.[23] Liel Liebovitz called attention to this “double standard” [24] in an article for the Jewish publication Tablet, concluding that “as Jews face real hate from left and right alike, we need and deserve an organization that places principles over politics.”[25]
Similarly, Ran Baratz, former media advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wrote that the ADL under Greenblatt adopted a “sober and appropriately harsh description” of right-wing anti-Semitism but conversely was astoundingly apologetic when addressing left-wing anti-Semitism.[26]
Under Greenblatt, the ADL has aligned the fight against anti-Semitism with other left-wing “civil rights” movements such as the push for expanded immigration and the expansion of . But many of the current civil rights activists in those movements give precedence to Palestinian solidarity “over the old solidarity with American Jews.”[27]
The New York Post’s Alex VanNess noted that the “ADL has also promoted the Black Lives Matter movement […] despite BLM’s support for [Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel] and open hostility toward Israel.” In fact, VanNess noted that “Greenblatt [had] accused American Jews of living with ‘white privilege.’”[28]
Baratz noted that “Black Lives Matter has spoken in rabid anti-Jewish and anti Israel terms” and yet the ADL has refused to condemn the movement. NPR noted that ADL’s CEO Greenblatt said that he sees the Black Lives Matter activism as “deep and real,” despite the fact that on multiple occasions “Activists from the Black Lives Matter movement, […] bitterly attacked the ADL over its connection with Israel.”[29]