Since the Anti-Defamation League’s founding in 1913, its declared mission has been “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people.” Thus, many were concerned when Jonathan Greenblatt took over as CEO of the esteemed organization in 2015: While his resume was long on efforts for social good, including a stint in former President Barack Obama’s Office of Social Innovation, it conspicuously lacked positions combating antisemitism or serving a Jewish cause. Most of all, they worried that Greenblatt would fail to check his well-established liberal political leanings at the door of the nonpartisan organization and, in turn, inadequately address the new wave of Jew-hatred growing on the Left.

It took little time for Greenblatt to prove his skeptics correct; it took much longer for the crisis to reach the point at which his silence was no longer tenable. Writing in Newsweek earlier this month, Greenblatt finally conceded what should have been among his first priorities, saying that it’s “time to admit” that the Left has an antisemitism problem. His real admission was that he had been reluctant, and thus inexcusably tardy, to recognize what was already obvious to everyone not compromised by ideological blinders.