Acts of violence and slander against Jewish people are
rising
, but the Anti-Defamation League, long the gold standard of the fight against this bigotry, has shifted its standards to favor the political Left, often ignoring acts of bigotry committed by its own side. So a new nonprofit group,
Antisemitism Watch
, is stepping into the void.
As husband and wife journalists
Gerald
and
Patricia Posner
tracked anti-Jewish incidents on their Facebook page
No.Anti-Semitism
, they noticed many were going unreported by the ADL. The Posners have written 15 books, four of which were about the Holocaust, including
The Pharmacist of Auschwitz: The Untold Story
, which I
interviewed
Patricia Posner about in 2017.
“We knew the ADL was tilting the results,” Posner, the executive director of Antisemitism Watch, told me. “There was the need for an alternative activist outlet for both Jews and non-Jews who wanted to battle the ancient religious hatred without taking a stance on either side of the political aisle.”
Gerald Posner, a lawyer who will serve as director and secretary of the group, said, “Anti-Jewish hatred does not respect political affiliations, nor will we. … We decided to highlight the incidents of
antisemitism
no matter where they occur; then we can work to get those in power to do something about it.”
The pair wrote in a
recent op-ed
,
“Away from the cases of Jew-hatred that go viral, the ADL has abdicated much of the hard work in the trenches,” often giving “a free pass to left-wing haters.” They note that the online
“
ADL Tracker
,” touted as a “compilation of recent cases of alleged anti-Jewish vandalism, harassment, and assault,” listed just 11 such incidents in the first 11 days of December.
The Posners pointed out that although the ADL puts out press releases on high-profile acts of left-wing hate, the tracker offered no results for Louis Farrakhan or two Democratic congresswomen with a history of anti-Jewish statements, Reps.
Ilhan Omar
(D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). In 2012, members of both parties condemned Omar for
tweeting
that “Israel has hypnotized the world” to do “evil.” She also drew a
rebuke
in 2019 from Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), for
tweeting
that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee had bought Republican support.
Just this past September, Tlaib
said
, “You cannot claim to hold progressive values yet back Israel’s apartheid government,” a description her fellow Democrat, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL),
dubbed
“nothing short of antisemitic.”
In what looks like a victory for Antisemitism Watch, I noticed that after the Posners’ piece ran, the ADL updated its tracker with twice as many entries for the 11-day period they cited. Next, the ADL might balance its annual audit of antisemitic incidents.
Its 2021
audit
listed just four groups as “
top distributors of antisemitic propaganda
,” all right-wing. The Posners ask, “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?”
The ADL, the Posners say, “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.”
The Posners now see the ADL, led by CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, a former aide to President
Barack Obama
, as an activist group for the Left. They don’t begrudge the ADL its
$60 million
in annual donations or activism but want to inform people about its change in mission.
Antisemitism has always been too large to expect any one organization to slay alone, and with the ADL’s shift, the Posners are bringing a sharp eye to the struggle, ensuring that those who target Jews will be unable to hide, no matter their politics.
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Dean Karayanis is the host of the History Author Show on iHeartRadio and a New York Sun columnist. A longtime Rush Limbaugh staffer, Karayanis currently produces the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show on 450+ radio stations.
