This is Not Your Grandfather's Antisemitism

Why the ADL's transformation into a progressive activist group means it often gives a pass to leftwing anti-Jewish hate

Today, my wife, author Patricia Posner, and I, wrote an OpEd in Newsweek, “Why Another Antisemitism Watchdog?” (also in the quote block below). It is a story of our personal frustration as incidents of anti-Jewish hate hit records in 2021 and again this year, and the Anti-Defamation League focused on many progressive issues that had little to do with its stated mission of combatting antisemitism.

As we write in Newsweek, “If antitrust laws applied to combating antisemitism, the ADL would seem at quick glance to be a monopolist. Its annual reports about antisemitism are cited widely in the media. With more than $60 million annually in donations, it is certainly one of the richest. And while the ADL does a lot of good work, for those of us who track anti-Jewish hate, it has seriously diluted its original mission by recasting itself in recent years as a more generic ‘leading anti-hate organization.’

The ADL's CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a former aide in the Obama White House's Office of So…