ADL Conference Leans Into Liberal Values

“You’ve all read these stories in The New York Times,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said at the annual “Never is Now” conference. He was referring to biased reporting against Israel and the alarming rise in global antisemitism that followed Oct. 7.

In many ways, it was the most important line of the whole conference. It signaled that Greenblatt fully understands the damage that illiberalism and political bias have done to not just education but journalism; that returning to liberalism was essential to combat antisemitism. And most important: He was no longer afraid to call it out, even at The New York Times.

“We are living in an Oct. 8 world, and I firmly believe that we as a Jewish community cannot afford to be divided. We cannot allow the partisanship and the polarization that has poisoned so much of our society. We can’t allow it to do the same to us.” – ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt

He also signaled this non-partisan vibe by awarding Jared Kushner for the Abraham Accords. “We are living in an Oct. 8 world, and I firmly believe that we as a Jewish community cannot afford to be divided,” Greenblatt said. “We cannot allow the partisanship and the polarization that has poisoned so much of our society. We can’t allow it to do the same to us.”

The two-day conference featured Israeli President Isaac Herzog (by video); historian Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy; Rabbi David Wolpe; writer Dara Horn; Marc Rowan; and Daniel Lifshitz, an advocate for the hostages whose grandfather, Oded, is still in captivity. 

We heard about the unprecedented global surge in antisemitism that immediately followed Oct. 7, before Israel even began to respond; the brutality of the harassment; the depth of the lies and cowardice at our top-tier universities. But we also heard about the damage caused by biased — nonobjective — education, journalism, and nonprofits.

The overall theme of the conference: Jewish liberal values are at the foundation of this country. We now need to bring them back for both Jews and the country to survive. “Antisemitism is not just a threat to Jews but to democracy,” said Lipstadt.

“We are not OK,” Greenblatt began his “State of Hate” address to roughly 4,000 attendees.

“The world of Oct. 8 is one in which the perpetrators of the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust are celebrated as heroes – not just in Ramallah or Beirut, but in London and New York and on campuses, including Harvard and Columbia.

“An Oct. 8 world is one in which prayers for the safety of hostages – men, women, children, the elderly — are met with vile hate-speech and moral confusion.

“An Oct. 8 world in which rape and sexual assault draw universal outrage, unless committed against Israeli women and girls.

“An Oct. 8 world in which college campuses are policed relentlessly for the smallest of microaggressions, but there seems to be no cop on the beat when the insults and threats are screamed at Jewish students in the quad, outside their fraternities, or even in the classroom.”

According to the ADL’s Center on Extremism, in just three months after Oct. 7, there were 3,291 antisemitic incidents in the U.S.

“Yes, it could happen here — because it is… because if we don’t insist on it, the consequences could be devastating. And that means we need to be clear-eyed about the threats we face — and have the determination to face them.”

One of the biggest threats is “that our opponents have worked tirelessly to muddy the message…to make what is morally clear, fuzzy … to lie and to gaslight about what’s happening. At times, it feels as if we are living in a Kafka novel.”

On this point Greenblatt couldn’t be clearer: “Anti-Zionism, plain and simple, means that Jews — alone among the peoples of the world — do not deserve freedom and self-determination in their homeland. Anti-Zionism is a negation of Jewish history, a denial of Jewish humanity.

“If your idea of expressing dissent against Israeli government policies is to attack Jews in America (or anywhere, for that matter), that doesn’t make you a de-colonizer, .a freedom fighter…or a progressive. It makes you a bigot.”

A major theme of the conference was that the main ideology to emerge under leftism — neo-Marxism — created an oppressor/oppressed narrative that just coincidentally neglects Jewish history and persecution. It also allowed the framework for Islamic terrorists to be seen as the ultimate victims. “The through line of antisemitism for thousands of years has been the denial of truth and the promotion of lies,” said Horn who, through her writing, has provided the intellectual framework for the left to return to classical liberalism.

“These lies are all part of the foundational big lie: that antisemitism itself is a righteous act of resistance against evil, because Jews are collectively evil and have no right to exist.” 

Taking pride in what we’ve accomplished and contributed to this country was another major theme of the conference. “No one can take that away from us – and it’s time we stopped letting people think that they can do so,” said Greenblatt. “The bottom line: There is not a part of American life that the Jewish community has not touched and impacted for good.”

“Americans need to learn who Jews are,” Horn said. “Our Torah gave the world the radical ideas of freedom and respect … and the refusal to bow to tyrants,” including “the tyranny of the majority.”

In presenting an award to Kushner, Greenblatt signaled that he was no longer going to bow down to the tyranny of partisanship. “I really don’t care how you vote, but the Abraham Accords are a groundbreaking achievement… The ADL is not a partisan organization. We are in this together.”

“Since Oct. 7, the Accords’ importance has loomed even larger as it has helped the Jewish state to maintain dialogue with an important contingent of the Arab world, despite the pushback across the Middle East and from other corners of the world.”

Not surprisingly, Kushner’s speech was also interrupted by hecklers. One yelled out “Ceasefire!” and another shouted that Kushner was a “warmonger.” In general, though, Kushner was well-received by the audience, drawing applause throughout his speech.

“We cannot let this be about politics,” Kushner said. “This is about the Jews. If Jews cannot look past their partisan beliefs to acknowledge positive efforts on behalf of the Jewish people, then we will be doomed.”

Greenblatt’s insistence that this was a pivotal moment ran throughout the conference. “The twisting of language … the moral cowardice…the blind eye toward antisemitism must end now.

“If not, you will hear our voices. You will see us outside your doors. And we will see you in court. Our donations that you relied on — gone. Our votes that you seek – forget about it. Our friendship or alliances — no more. In this Oct. 8 world, we will not be silent. We will not let our country be lost to the anti-Semites and bigots.

“We will not flee. We will fight. And we will win.”

What did it take for the ADL to double down on liberal values?  A combination of what Lipstadt referred to as “Oct. 7 denialism”; the silence of former allies; the willingness — eagerness — of progressives to believe Hamas’ lies; the “glee” of raging anti-Semites. Or perhaps finally seeing the damage that leftism — and remaining silent — has caused in our universities and media.

The more important question right now is: can the ADL lead the left back to liberalism, saving both ourselves and the country?

Through the Torah, we brought the world the essential values of truth, justice, freedom, and equality. And then those values informed the basis of the U.S. Constitution. The inversion of those values is precisely what’s enabling the “systemic lie,” as Horn puts it, of today’s antisemitism. 

And thus it makes sense that it’s going to be up to us to reteach both the left and the right the fundamental principles of classical liberalism. 

After the death of Moses, G-d tells Joshua: “Chazak v’ematz”: Be strong and courageous. It may seem counterintuitive, but it’s now time for us to lead again — to fight the tyranny of leftism. As Horn put it: “We’ve reached our Queen Esther moment.”

Karen Lehrman Bloch is editor in chief of White Rose Magazine.