Why Another Antisemitism Watchdog? | Opinion

Few contest that antisemitism—history's oldest hatred of a religious and ethnic group—has had an unmatched post-Holocaust resurgence. In the U.S., Canada, and across Europe, the number of antisemitic attacks broke records for each of the past two years. Jews are 2.5 times more likely to be a victim of a hate crime than blacks, and twice as likely as Muslims.

There has been plenty to feed the hatred. Egregious old tropes, such as the notion that Jews are only loyal to themselves and control the world's finances, persist. Meanwhile, social media has spread at lightning speed a litany of new conspiracy theories claiming Jews were responsible for everything from the slave trade to the COVID pandemic. Kanye West's recent antisemitic outbursts were a reminder that hating Jews is no longer your grandfather's Holocaust denial and loathing of the State of Israel.

This summer, we polled nearly 100 Jewish and non-Jewish colleagues and friends to discern their thoughts about the rise in antisemitism. They expressed a combination of disappointment, anger, and even hopelessness. When asked what they might do to fight it, two-thirds said they had done what they could by contributing to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

"You have to leave it to the experts," one lawyer told us.

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 Social Innovation and Civic Participation, has refashioned the ADL in his seven-year tenure into a progressive activist group. When the ADL does go after antisemitism, it often focuses on either celebrity cases or right-wing anti-Jewish extremism, while giving a free pass to left-wing haters. As part of its new progressive identity, the organization also endorses partnerships and enterprises that themselves sometimes contain elements of anti-Jewish hatred.

The ADL, however, still wields a lot of power from its outdated reputation as the world's leading defender against Jewish hate. Corporations and celebrities enmeshed in antisemitism scandals know that public rehabilitation is possible so long as they cut a deal with the ADL. After Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving tweeted a link to a Holocaust-denying film, he and his team agreed to donate $500,000 each to the ADL (Greenblatt later rejected Irving's donation after he refused to also apologize for the tweet). Adidas gave the ADL over $1 million to combat hate after the fallout from its partnership with Kanye West.

Away from the cases of Jew-hatred that go viral, the ADL has abdicated much of the hard work in the trenches. For instance, the organization touts its online "ADL Tracker" as a "compilation of recent cases of alleged anti-Jewish vandalism, harassment, and assault reported to or detected by ADL." Through the first 11 days of this month, the ADL listed just 11 incidents.

From a Facebook page (No.Antisemtism) that we administer, it is evident how much the ADL missed: Austria ordered a probe into a Vienna mosque that is a hotbed of antisemitic incitement; U.K. lawmakers launched an inquiry into repeated charges of anti-Jewish bias and "significant failing" at the BBC; a passenger on Southwest Airlines taunted Jewish passengers with a paper crown with antisemitic phrases; a New York high school student posted antisemitic comments online; antisemitic fliers were distributed around Fresno, California; a French Holocaust-denier rejected extradition from Scotland; an Orthodox Jewish woman was physically assaulted in North London; there were multiple reports of virulent anti-Jewish hostility at the World Cup in Qatar; in Finland, artists boycotted a museum that had a link to an Israeli businessman; a Los Angeles report showed hate crimes were the highest in 19 years and that Jews were the victims in 74% of religiously motivated attacks; elite German fraternity students got away with suspended sentences for an antisemitic assault; speakers at a Canadian Palestinian solidarity event were revealed to have questioned the Holocaust and praised terrorists; the Church of England found a British vicar guilty of spreading antisemitism; a South London theatre hosted a notorious antisemite; Harvard University ranked first in a study of campus antisemitism; there were calls for a German bishop to resign after antisemitism remarks; rapper Akon defended Kanye West for saying he "loved" Hitler; a mobile synagogue was vandalized in Manhattan's SoHo; the Israeli envoy to India was trolled online with antisemitic taunts; a report showed that one in four hiring managers are antisemitic; and three teens were arrested in South Florida for antisemitic graffiti.

So, in under two weeks, the ADL missed 2/3 of the antisemitic incidents. The "ADL Tracker" fails to list hundreds of incidents on an annual basis. There are zero Tracker search results for Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Louis Farrakhan, Nick Cannon, the Nation of Islam, or Black Lives Matters. Nor is it just the Tracker where the ADL is coming up short. The ADL has also taken a backseat on calling out the entrenched antisemitism that flourishes at many American universities. It seems missing in action, at times, over how anti-Jewish bigotry often masquerades as anti-Zionism.

In its "Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2021," the ADL listed four "Most Noteworthy Extremist Groups." They were all right-wing: the Folkish Resistance Movement, Goyim Defense League, the New Jersey European Heritage Association, and White Lives Matter. Those are, indeed, groups that thrive on anti-Jewish hatred. But where is the Nation of Islam, Radical Hebrew Israelites, or the New Black Panthers, all of which are listed as dangerous antisemitic hate groups by no less a left-wing organization than the Southern Poverty Law Center?

It is great if someone wants to give a donation to the ADL because of its progressive stances on non-Jewish issues. However, those who want to battle record levels of antisemitism might think twice before donating.

The change in the ADL's mission is why we have formed Antisemitism Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group of volunteers dedicated to putting a spotlight only on anti-Jewish prejudice and violence across the political spectrum. Our duty as journalists will be exposing individuals and groups that promote and engage in incitement and hatred toward Jewish people. There will be daily online updates of antisemitic incidents around the globe. Antisemitism Watch also plans to develop online and multimedia programs for community outreach and education to counter the stereotypical falsehoods that feed anti-Jewish prejudice. In this way, we will use digital tools to effectively combat this ancient hatred.

Combating the scourge of antisemitism requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. We will continue to do our small part.

Gerald and Patricia Posner are husband and wife journalists, authors of 15 books, four of which were about the Holocaust (Mengele; Hitler's Children; God's Bankers; The Pharmacist of Auschwitz). They have written about Holocaust issues in The New York Times and The New Yorker. Prior to launching Antisemitism Watch, they administered No.Antisemitism on Facebook.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.