Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League incited a considerable amount of heat – and hatred – during his eight-year tenure as director of a Jewish lobby group.
And some of that hatred comes from an unexpected place: the Jewish community.
“The ADL has raised tens of hundreds of thousands talking about anti-Semitism and the way they’re specializing in anti-Semitism,” Gerald Posner told The Post. “But over the last seven years, they’ve tackled a lot of issues unrelated to their core mission – racism, dreamers, criminal justice reform and more, all of which are the same points of discussion for the most left-leaning and progressive wing of the Democratic Party.”
Posner and his wife Patricia, each Jewish writers/journalists based in Miami Beach, were so disillusioned with the current version of the ADL that they recently decided to start out their very own pro-Jewish organization.
called antisemitism watch, The Posners claim that their organization is non-partisan – unlike the ADL, which they consider has develop into indistinguishable from the views of the Democratic Party.
Critics have sharply criticized Greenblatt – a former adviser to President Obama who earned $575,716 in 2021 – for as an alternative of focusing only on pro-Jewish issues, he zealously crushes conservatives and loves the Democratic Party.
“No more ADL. So far as the Jews are concerned, the organization is now doing more harm than good.” thundered a headline in the Jewish online magazine The Tablet last fall.
![Gerald and Patricia Posner](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008947045.jpg?w=1024)
Editor-in-chief Liel Leibovitz criticized Greenblatt for pumping up the coffers of the ADL – created in 1913 to combat anti-Semitic libel against Jews – with donations from Big Tech and Democratic Party donors, while allegedly not paying enough attention to fighting anti-Semitism against abnormal people.
ADL reported revenue of $101,058,936 in 2021, in line with the most up-to-date public records, nearly doubling the organization’s revenue before Greenblatt took over in 2015.
“Due to this fact, no ADL can be a lot better than the one we’ve got now,” Liebovitz wrote. “Because of its own enormous conflicts of interest, the ADL under Greenblatt may perhaps, unintentionally or otherwise, contribute to increasing anti-Semitism quite than reducing it. Greenblatt turned the ADL into a partisan attack machine, fueled by corporate money and increasingly oblivious to any real suffering of any real Jews.”
Charles Jacobsboss Jewish leadership project; Morton Klein, economist and president Zionist Organization of America; and Jonathan S. Tobin, editor-in-chief of The Jewish News Syndicate they’re amongst the conservative Jewish leaders who’re furious with how Greenblatt is running the ADL.
“The ADL not only fails to guard Jews, it misleads them: it promotes the concept that the right is the most dangerous, if not almost exclusive, source of Jew hatred,” said Jacobs, who edited Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, a collection of essays Jewish Writers to be published in May.
![The headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League in Manhattan.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008947211.jpg?w=1024)
“The ADL is trapped by its antiquated view of liberalism, which once protected Jews and all minorities, but has been defeated by a revived progressivism that divides society into ‘oppressed and oppressors’ and defines Jews as neighboring whites who oppress minorities,” added Jacobs. “[But] there are not any neo-Nazi professors rallying students against Israeli supporters on campus, and the thugs in Recent York beating up Jews should not white but minorities.”
Klein, whose organization has about 30,000 members, criticized what Greenblatt called “public praise” for U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar, whom Klein called “one of the biggest Jew-haters in Congress,” in addition to positive attitudes towards the pro-Palestinian blacks of the Life Group meaning.
“It focuses more on hatred of blacks and Muslims than hatred of Jews,” Klein told The Post. “He’s a man who worked for Obama for a few years. He worked for the Aspen Institute, where George Soros is a major donor. Greenblatt is an extremist.”
![Charles Jacobs of the Jewish Leadership Project](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008994585.jpg)
The Posners said they surveyed nearly 100 Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues and friends last summer and asked what they considered the rise in anti-Semitism.
Data from Center for the Study of Hatred and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino showed a 59% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in major US cities in 2021 and one other 28% increase last 12 months, in line with center director Brian Levin.
Two-thirds of those polled by Posners said they felt they did what they might in supporting the ADL.
![The logo of the Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in September 1913 to combat anti-Semitic attacks against Jews.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008947209.jpg?w=1024)
Greenblatt, 52, a former special assistant to President Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and businessman, took over the ADL in 2015 from longtime ADL chief Abe Foxman.
During his tenure, he expanded the ADL’s focus to incorporate other “marginalized communities”, Web content moderation, and even gender issues and important race theory (a sympathetic discussion of CRT and “racism, sexism and other forms of oppression” could be found on the ADL website).
ADL Website Has A Page About “Anti-LBGTQ+ Extremism Online Amplifiers” targeting the Libs of TikTok social media account in addition to Gays Against Groomers and “pseudojournalists” who oppose “gender-affirming care” and drag shows.
![Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008992960.jpg?w=1024)
Last 12 months, the ADL said it was “reviewing” its educational content after Fox News investigation found concepts from the CRT in addition to far-left ideas in the ADL’s education wing. William Jacobson, founder of the Conservative party Legal risehe said ADL’s lesson plans “reflect how ADL has lost its way.”
An ADL spokesperson denied that the organization teaches CRT, but added: “That being said, we’re removed from perfect and apparently there may be content amongst our curriculum materials that’s inconsistent with ADL’s values and strategy. We intend to handle this issue immediately and openly.”
Greenblatt he told the radio presenter “Charlamagne tha God” in a recent interview with “The Breakfast Club” that he has advised major tech corporations, including Meta, on content moderation and has advised PayPal on methods to block groups it considers extremist.
![Gerald Posner](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000009023566.jpg?w=682)
Tobin claimed Greenblatt had turned the ADL into “one other Democratic Party left-wing aide”, adding that the ADL board was completely happy with the director because he brought in a lot money.
“It’s develop into like every other big business,” Tobin said. “They’re collecting extra money now than after they were actually doing their job. They’re appealing to donors who want this to be one other left-wing talking shop with a left-leaning sheen. Many persons are offended with the ADL, but the ADL is stronger and richer and so they don’t care. In our bifurcated society, that is how it really works now.”
Online magazine “Jewish Currents” reported on March 8 that some of Greenblatt’s criticism comes from inside the ranks of the ADL. An audio leaked to the site indicated that a special meeting had been called to reassure some employees upset by a speech Greenblatt gave last May in which he compared Palestine’s rights organizations to right-wing extremists.
![Jonathan S. Tobin of the Jewish News Syndicate](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008408903.jpg)
The ADL also drew criticism for longtime CEO Foxman. He was widely criticized for fawning over French designer John Galliano, for example after the Frenchman’s wildly anti-Semitic rant was caught publicly in 2011.
But Foxman, as one Jewish source identified, had “bulletproof” history this saved him from the harsh criticism now leveled at Greenblatt.
Foxman, who was born in Poland in 1940, was a “hidden child”. He was raised from 15 months old to about 6 years old by his Catholic nanny because the Nazis were murdering Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. His parents got here back for him after World War II.
![Brian Levin, director of the Cal State San Bernardino Hate and Extremism Study](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/NYPICHPDPICT000008994725.jpg)
But there are a lot of individuals who disagree with Greenblatt’s conservative critics.
Brian Levin of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism he said Greenblatt’s concentrate on online content and other forms of extremism is true given the current state of society.
“If Jesus himself had run the ADL, Mort Klein would have criticized his robes for being wrinkled,” Levin told The Post.
“Greenblatt is completely right to concentrate on tech corporations and the content that comes out. We see how violent prejudices, false stereotypes and conspiracy theories are being promoted online. Jonathan took the helm [of the ADL] in particularly stormy weather. Hard liberals don’t necessarily prefer it either. Anyone who heads a Jewish organization won’t ever please everyone.”
The ADL emailed a statement urging The Post to “have a look at the source of these attacks and concentrate on the facts. The ADL was, and is, the leading anti-Semitism organization in the United States and abroad. In light of changing times and the recent worrying rise in anti-Semitism, we’ve got redoubled our efforts… The ADL’s leadership on anti-Semitism is now the same because it has been in the past, much more in order we’ve got adapted to changing times and trends.”
But Greenblatt’s opponents say his rule is dangerous to Jews.
“American Jews may not give you the option to beat the tsunami of anti-Semitism against us if there is no such thing as a change in the leadership of the Jewish establishment,” Jacobs said. “Greenblatt must go.”