My latest in PJ Media:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has strayed a long distance from its stated mission “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.” For years now, it has been essentially the Leftist Anti-Defamation League, espousing far-Left cause after far-Left cause, no matter how opposed these causes were to their supposed core mission of stopping anti-Semitism. Now the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), a coalition of over 1,500 Orthodox Jewish rabbis, is calling out the ADL for having lost “the moral clarity to properly identify antisemitism, let alone combat it.”
The ADL earned this richly deserved repudiation by declaring “anti-Israel activism in and of itself is not antisemitism,” and announcing that it would not reject anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions out of hand, but would “carefully evaluate” each one. CJV Southern Regional Vice President Rabbi Moshe B. Parnes minced no words in laying bare the extent of the ADL’s betrayal: “Only someone with no sense of Jewish history could claim that BDS is not antisemitic. The first Nazi edict was a boycott of Jewish businesses; economic warfare directed against the Jewish people was then and has always been one of the first signs of systemic Jew-hatred. Combating antisemitism in all its forms defined the ADL’s mission throughout its long and storied history, and it is crucial that it return to its core goals.”
Yet instead of confronting and combating anti-Semitism, when the crazy-Left ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would no longer sell ice cream in what it falsely claimed was “occupied Palestinian territory,” the ADL’s response was tepid, at best. “We are disappointed by this decision from @benandjerrys,” the ADL tweeted. “You can disagree with policies without feeding into dangerous campaigns that seek to undermine Israel.”
That was it. In response to Ben & Jerry’s boycott, the ADL didn’t call for a counter-boycott, or put pressure on Ben & Jerry’s to reverse its stance, or make any effort to educate the public on the salient issues, or even tell supporters of Israel to get their ice cream elsewhere. All it did was tweet.
This was similar to the ADL’s weak response to the repeated anti-Semitic statements from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Mogadishu). But the ADL’s timidity before Omar as well as Ben & Jerry’s was understandable: maybe they were just short-handed. Maybe the ADL’s top dogs were busy with their new initiative. JTA reported Tuesday: “The Anti-Defamation League has joined with PayPal to research how extremists use financial platforms to fund criminal activity. The partnership will focus on ‘uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements’ by targeting ‘actors and networks spreading and profiting from all forms of hate and bigotry,’ according to an ADL news release published Monday morning.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
jewdog says
If you’re familiar with the U. of Arkansas study on antisemitism, they depart from the ADL methodology and instead use the double-standard method advocated by Natan Sharansky. Read that fascinating study here: https://edre.uark.edu/_resources/pdf/antisemitism19feb2021.pdf
Frank Anderson says
I have the highest professional regard for all rabbis, psychiatrists and psychologists. I am sad and very disappointed to observe the rabbis I have encountered locally seem oblivious to the teachings of islam, to the level they asked me to leave the community. I accept that: just as I have the right to decide who I let in my life, they do also. I lament what I see as their suicidal ignorance that parallels if not copies the suicidal denial of Jews during Hitler’s time in Germany. The problem is not unique to the ADL, but seems pervasive.
mortimer says
The suicidal lack of concern about the jihad threat is certainly prevalent among leftish Americans of every religious heritage and moreso among those who consider themselves secularists. I would suspect that Orthodox Jews may be much better informed than other American Jews. According to opinion surveys, the best informed Americans (about jihad) are white Protestant males and white Catholic males in that order. Black males are low on awareness of the jihad threat. So are women of most religious categories.
Very few Americans are well-informed about the jihad threat. Most Americans have been successfully brainwashed by the leftist groups to consider criticism of foreign religions to be unwarranted ‘hate speech’ and thus speech they want to censure.
Censorship of speech that analyzes jihad and political Islam is promoted by this lack of information … information which the majority of American desperately need to avert future disaster from Islamic terrorists.
Frank Anderson says
mortimer, always respected and frequently agreed with: the local orthodox rabbi is demonstrating in favor of wide open borders for the US. If Israel had wide open borders it would cease to exist in hours.
There is an inconsistency with a basic ancient teaching, attributed to several sources, “Do unto others as you WISH they would do unto you.” If a rule would destroy one country, why would a person of such wisdom and education (5 full years AFTER a bachelor’s degree) find it possible to advocate the rule? My bewilderment continues for people who taught me much and whom I admire greatly. Life goes on; and some answers await my personal audience with the Father.
sidney penny says
The 1,500 Rabbis maybe should form their own”: ADL” to fight, Anti-Semitism and stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all?