In the early 20th century, few groups defined the struggle against hatred to the extent of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Founded in 1913 in response to the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of rape and murder in Georgia, they fought for civil rights and anti-hate crime legislation. Now, over a century later, the ADL has changed. The ADL today is a partisan organization that distracts from the true fight against antisemitism. We must oppose this organization.
The ADL moved from an organization directed towards combatting antisemitism through legal means to blatantly engaging in illegal surveillance. An LA Times article published in 1993 alleged that an ADL agent had shared information he gathered with Israeli consular officials. The original affidavit from this case further accused the ADL of acquiring illegal information on thousands of activists, including members of the American Civil Liberties Union and more. The LA Times further states how the ADL kept a record of every Arab-American in the Los Angeles region with “anti-Israel” leanings, even spying on members of Congress.
The definition of antisemitism that the ADL uses to justify everything from attacking colleges to illegal surveillance is broad, partisan and dangerous. Following the Oct. 7 attacks, the ADL changed the way in which it publicized allegations of antisemitism, focusing more intensely on anti-Israel activism. They, like many organizations, adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which defines antisemitism as attacks on Jewish people, comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany and opposing Zionism. This is an aggressive and expansive definition that targets political dissidence and is routinely attacked by groups including Jewish university faculty. Jewish Currents, a Jewish left-wing magazine, published a counter-report to the 2024 ADL antisemitism report, which posited a vast number of issues held within the ADL report, all of which have been repeated in yearly releases by the Anti-Defamation League. First, the report was littered with contradictions; the ADL initially states that they do not consider swastikas targeting non-Jewish minority groups under the antisemitism label, yet the report is full of allegations of antisemitism based on the usage of the swastika to target non-Jews. Further, Jewish Currents identified 36 percent of ADL allegations of antisemitism as explicitly due to acts tied to anti-Zionism. This includes phrases supporting resistance to Israel’s oppression, solidarity with Palestinian rebel groups, and anything else that espouses “opposition to Zionism.” The counter-report alleges nearly 20 percent of the recorded acts of antisemitism were not explicitly antisemitic, rather they were simply anti-Zionist or anti-Israel. The ADL claims that it only considers anti-Israel messages spread towards non-partisan Jewish organizations as antisemitic, but they include in their report allegations of antisemitism with no details and simply vague terminology such as “Jewish event.” When we understand this as an organization with a history of lies and contradictions, we are right to be suspicious of its claims of non-partisanship. The Jewish Currents report alleges a simple crisis in the ADL yearly report; nearly half (44%) of their claims of antisemitism are either false or wholly unsubstantiated. The simple fact is, the data demonstrates the ADL as a poor organization for tracking and combating antisemitism, due to its inability to correctly identify it.
This inability to identify antisemitism goes beyond its mere targeting of anti-Zionism or anti-Israel activism under the guise of antisemitism; in its adherence to the IHRA definition, the ADL fails to target legitimate antisemitism from the right. Its yearly reports rarely mention the antisemitic words from Nicholas Fuentes, one of the far right’s leading social media figures. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, continues an allyship with Elon Musk, despite Musk’s intense antisemitism and blatant spreading of racial hatred. This partnership with antisemites and bigots extends to President Trump, whom the ADL defended after he suggested Jews would not support him as he would refuse their money. This issue of Elon Musk became so drastic that an ADL executive resigned, as she, along with other ADL employees, could not tolerate working for Greenblatt when he ignored right-wing antisemitism, cozied up to pro-Israel antisemites and expanded the definition of antisemitism to the point of it becoming effectively moot.
All of these issues within the modern ADL stem from one crisis: its focus on anti-Zionism and anti-Israel rhetoric. It has become an organization infected with a sense of tunnel vision, obsessed with ensuring the survival of a genocidal state even if this means abandoning their principles. However, anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, nor is criticism of Israel. Opposition to Zionism comes not out of a hatred for Jewish people, but a love of all people. Anti-Zionists, generally, do not oppose Zionism because they oppose Jews, but because they oppose Israel imposing its will upon the Palestinian people. Simply ask the numerous Jewish groups and students who oppose Zionism if they hate Jews. The ADL’s insistence of prioritizing Israel has turned a once stark defender of civil rights into a dangerously partisan organization that divides rather than protects the Jewish people.
The Anti-Defamation League was created with the goal of defending people from oppression and racial subjugation, but it now defends the forces it once sought to destroy. I am Jewish, I am anti-Israel and I am anti-Zionist. According to the ADL and its CEO, I must be self-hating. The ADL has willingly participated in the division inside the Jewish community surrounding Israel and pushed young Jews away from our communities. In its failures to identify right-wing antisemitism, constant attacks on activists and fixation on anti-Zionism, they have failed themselves. This failure has left us with one choice: to distance ourselves from the ADL. Institutions must not follow the ADL’s lead blindly, as many have in the past. Only through pushing back against the ADL’s partisanship and alienation of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel Jews and activists can we mend the wounds that have so deeply infected our nation.