ADL CEO says fears staff safety after Netanyahu throws Musk antisemitism softball
Earlier this month, X owner Elon Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for billions of dollars.
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt on Wednesday said he appreciates Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “raising concerns about the proliferation of antisemitism” on X (formerly Twitter) during his conversation with Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk at Tesla’s offices in California on Tuesday.
“I hope Musk takes these concerns seriously, and I hope the platform becomes safer and more inclusive for all users, particularly its Jewish users,” Greenblatt told The Jerusalem Post in an interview.
Earlier this month, Musk threatened to sue the ADL for billions of dollars and amplified a hashtag spread by white supremacists.
“I was happy that Netanyahu acknowledged that there is antisemitism on X,” Greenblatt said.
His comments came 36 hours after Musk fired off a stream of posts on X, accusing the ADL of trying to tank the platform by encouraging an ad boycott against it. Musk directly engaged with a white supremacist on the platform and liked a post that included the hashtag #BanTheADL, which grew popular among antisemitic users. The ADL later said neo-Nazi marchers in Florida last weekend chanted “Ban the ADL.”
“We have consistently faced attacks, denigration, and slander from groups with their own agendas throughout history,” Greenblatt told the Post. “In the 1930s, figures like Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest with antisemitic sentiments, and Nazi sympathizers targeted us. In the ’50s, it was the John Birch Society, a right-wing political advocacy group. Then in the 1990s we contended with the Nation of Islam, a black-nationalist organization. More recently, campaigns like #DropTheADL, led by anti-Zionist organizations, have emerged.”
“Nowadays, ADL has become a proxy to attack Jews,” he said. “This feels eerily familiar. Musk is amplifying these attacks against us.”
The ADL “evolved into an organizational embodiment of the Jewish community,” Greenblatt said. “When I reflect on what my grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, endured in Germany or consider the experiences of my wife’s family as refugees from Iran, it’s clear that, comparatively, we face less adversity today. However, we have had to invest in heightened security measures.”
“We’ve had to engage with our staff, grappling with these challenges,” he said. “I empathize with them and worry about their well-being. We have determined detractors, enemies, and individuals who harbor animosity toward the Jewish people and the Jewish state. But what sets this situation apart is that the wealthiest individual in the world, the owner of one of the most influential media platforms on the planet, has been amplifying and expanding the reach of these detractors and enemies. That’s deeply concerning.”
Greenblatt said he did not think a meeting between Musk and Netanyahu was particularly surprising, “considering Israel’s prominence in digital technology, its status as one of the world’s most innovative ecosystems, and its connections to ventures like Starlink, SpaceX, Tesla, and Twitter. What’s crucial to understand is that many antisemitic attacks on Twitter are rooted in antisemitic tropes, and this is something he [Netanyahu] should acknowledge."
“In our situation, Israel and Jews are frequent targets of hateful anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric on Twitter,” he said.
ADL head to meet with other Jewish organizations, Netanyahu
Asked what he would discuss with Netanyahu, Greenblatt said: “This is not just about the ADL; it goes beyond that. The ADL has been a fearless defender of the Jewish people for 110 years, standing up against white supremacists, staunch anti-Zionists, and others seeking to undermine us.”He said he would speak to Netanyahu about “the intensification of antisemitism in the US, which has reached levels unimaginable a decade ago. Antisemitic incidents have surged to the highest point ever recorded by the ADL in its 45-year history of tracking data, with incidents now over 500% higher than a decade ago.”Greenblatt described some recent concerning incidents, including bomb threats against Jewish institutions, propaganda distribution demonizing Jews, open neo-Nazi marches, and the removal of Anne Frank’s Diary from bookshelves and from debates about teaching the Holocaust.“In this context, I find something deeply disturbing,” he said. “During the meeting with the prime minister, my focus won’t be solely on Twitter but on the broader environment we are navigating and our profound concerns. What can we, as a community and a people, do to address this?”Greenblatt said he was satisfied with Netanyahu’s repeated urging of Musk to speak out against antisemitism, but he regretted Musk’s failure to provide a more detailed response that demonstrated a deeper understanding of the issue and expected Musk to be better prepared.During former president Donald Trump’s administration, Greenblatt was vocal in his criticism of Trump, particularly during a surge in antisemitic attacks, which have continued to rise. President Joe Biden has not faced the same level of criticism as Trump did, and he also launched a national plan to combat antisemitism.“There’s no doubt that antisemitism spiked in the United States in 2016 during Trump’s presidency,” Greenblatt said. “Incidents like Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, Poway, Jersey City, Monsey, and others amplified this problem. While president Trump took some positive steps, such as the executive order on antisemitism and adopting the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition, the numbers have continued to rise in the past two years. The federal government and external organizations are working on initiatives, making it a mixed bag for both administrations.”“Both the Trump Executive Order on Combating Antisemitism and the Biden national strategy highlight the government’s significant role in addressing this issue,” he said.When asked if he would meet with Musk if invited, Greenblatt said it would depend on the circumstances, emphasizing the need for a better, healthier, and safer Twitter (X) and acknowledging that the platform’s issues existed before Musk’s involvement.Nevertheless, Greenblatt expressed disappointment with the presence of extremists on the platform and said he would consider meeting with Musk if concrete actions and steps forward were proposed. But without such a commitment, he said he would decline the invitation.
Greenblatt cautioned against division within communities, emphasizing that only antisemites benefit from such divisions.
JTA contributed to this report.
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