Jewish orgs pen letter to Wikipedia condemning ADL ban

Forty Jewish organizations have signed a letter condemning Wikipedia’s declaration of the ADL as "generally unreliable," which will be sent to the Wikipedia Foundation on Tuesday night.

The US Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said they "express concern and dismay with Wikipedia’s attack on ADL’s reliability on the topic of antisemitism and other issues of central concern to the Jewish community."

Last week, Wikipedia’s editors voted to add the ADL to a list of banned and partially banned sources due to its citations related to Israel.

As a result, the ADL is grouped together with the National Inquirer, Newsmax, and Occupy Democrats as a source of propaganda or misinformation in Wikipedia.

In the letter, the Jewish organizations claimed that Wikipedia is stripping the Jewish community of the right to defend itself.

Removing the ability to fight back

"We are deeply concerned that Wikipedia’s decision will enable others to undermine our community’s claims or charges of antisemitism and simultaneously use Wikipedia’s decision as cover to perpetuate antisemitism'" they said. "At a time when antisemitic attitudes are increasing, and antisemitic incidents are skyrocketing, this is simply unacceptable, and it puts our entire community at risk."

The letter stated that the decision to "attack ADL's reliability over its use of the IHRA definition andadvocacy on behalf of the Jewish people" is a harmful action to the Jewish community.

The leaders asked Wikipedia to investigate the decision and to consider the ban.