(RNS) — The Anti-Defamation League has fashioned itself as the “leading anti-hate organization in the world.” But these days, it appears to be focused mostly on fighting antisemitism specifically.
Beginning in 2023, it phased out its signature anti-hate educational program, A World of Difference Institute, without formally announcing it, the magazine Jewish Currents first reported on March 27.
In a statement, an ADL spokesperson acknowledged the program was eliminated. Updates to its educational offerings that reflect a focus on antisemitism are also noted on its website.
“We are always evaluating our programs, and phased out the A World of Difference® Institute in 2023 for efficiency reasons, as it reached a fraction of our more scalable programs,” the statement said.
Begun 40 years ago, the educational program reached thousands of schoolrooms each year and was designed to “challenge prejudice, stereotyping and all forms of discrimination.” The program consisted of a trained facilitator offering workshops to teach teachers and students how to fight bias, strengthen pluralism and promote democratic ideals.
But in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, the ADL appears to have shifted its focus. In addition to tracking antisemitism, it has become increasingly vocal in championing Israel. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has repeatedly said that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. He has called for the campus organization, Students for Justice in Palestine, to be investigated for providing “material support” to Hamas. The ADL has also endorsed crushing pro-Palestinian student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.
In January, it defended Elon Musk after he twice gave what many interpreted as a fascist Nazi salute at an event celebrating Trump’s inauguration, advising those who were upset to give Musk “the benefit of the doubt and take a breath.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt delivers a prerecorded video message during the ADL’s National Leadership Summit, May 1, 2022. (Video screen grab)
Most recently, it applauded the Trump administration’s move to deport former Columbia student activist and permanent U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil, saying there should be “swift and severe consequences for those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.”
It has also lobbied for the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, which critics say conflates the Jewish people with the Israeli state.
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The ADL’s mission statement is twofold: “to fight the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all.” That latter part is changing though the organization denied it.
The spokesperson for the ADL said the organization has not retreated from its mission and pointed to its No Place for Hate initiative, a self-directed, student-led program that allows schoolchildren to survey their school’s climate, sign a petition and implement other activities to challenge bias and bullying.
“ADL is committed to anti-bias education; we have a variety of programs and a growing library of educational resources,” the statement said.
But the website used to have hundreds of model lesson plans devoted to anti-bias and diversity that are no longer there. Its antisemitism and Holocaust awareness classroom lessons remain.
Danielle Bryant, a former ADL education director in Austin, Texas, wrote in a March 4 op-ed in The Daily News that she quit working for the organization after it honored Jared Kushner in 2024 for his work on the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements on Arab-Israeli normalization signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain during Trump’s first administration.
The ADL, Bryant wrote, “shields Israel from criticism over its decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people and dangerously conflates that critique with antisemitism, while giving cover to right-wing extremists.”
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