More Criticism of ADL Bias, Including Attack on NLPC

The perversion of the Anti-Defamation League’s mission under Democratic political operative Jonathan Greenblatt is starting to attract the criticism it deserves. The latest comes from Rabbi Yaakov Menken in an opinion article in the Daily Signal, a publication of the Heritage Foundation.

Yaakov cites several recent examples of the ADL going to bat for antisemites if their politics are correct, while seeking to besmirch other Jews and organizations who are actually fighting antisemitism, if their politics are not.

Despite our long track record, NLPC ended up in the crosshairs of the ADL’s so-called Center on Extremism in November. Rabbi Menken writes:

…the same Center on Extremism published a similar hit piece on the National Center for Public Policy Research and the National Legal and Policy Center. These organizations criticize supranational organizations like the U.N. and the World Economic Forum and what they call “globalist” agendas.

 

Although the ADL readily admitted that the “globalist” language was consistent with what “mainstream personalities and politicians” use and that “there is no evidence to suggest that either organization’s … proposals were filed with antisemitic intentions,” the ADL insisted nonetheless that the word globalist “could be interpreted” (emphasis added) as “an antisemitic dog whistle,” along with “conspiracy theories” that “sometimes promote antisemitism” (emphasis added).

No wonder Greenblatt didn’t like our criticisms of “globalism.” He had a high profile at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January. According to Politico, he was one of the lucky invitees to a party thrown by the wokest of American corporations, Salesforce, where Sting performed a live set and guests were “indulged in vodka apricot sours, fondant potatoes with seared Wagyu beef and wild mushroom arancini.” Salesforce has hosted presentations for its employees by Black Lives Matter activists. Black Lives Matter is a movement saturated in antisemitism. What was Greenblatt doing there?

The ADL has enjoyed wide support by American Jews for decades, reflected in the fact that it received more than $100 million in 2022, the latest year for which a tax return is public. Greenblatt himself was paid more than a million dollars. That’s good money, especially for hijacking the ADL’s important mission, and transforming the League into sort of a Left-Wing super PAC.

Because he can ride the ADL’s reputation, Greenblatt can get away with this partisanship and recklessness for some time. But eventually reality will catch up. Consider NLPC’s actual history of fighting antisemitism, along with the level of cynicism necessary for the ADL’s failed attempt to smear us.

Here is our record:

Ben & Jerry’s- When the Unilever subsidiary Ben and Jerry’s announced in 2021 that it would end ice cream sales in “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” NLPC swung into action, launching the StopBenandJerrys.org website.

In September 2021, NLPC filed a Complaint with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against Anuradha Mittal, the anti-Israel chair of the Ben & Jerry’s board of directors. A few weeks later, she was named 2021 “Antisemite of the Year” by the website StopAntisemitism.org.

Mittal appeared to have violated laws governing self-dealing by acting as a trustee of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation while approving donations to her personal nonprofit where she is executive director taking a full-time salary. Also, the president of Ben & Jerry’s charitable foundation, Jeff Furman, steered more than $100,000 of its funds to his own nonprofit organization.

In the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack, Flaherty wrote an op-ed titled, “Unilever, Ice Cream and Antisemitism.”

Unilever Divestment- NLPC was a proponent of Unilever divestment efforts in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia. From the September 16, 2021, New York Times:

“We are doing this because somebody has to hold the independent board of Ben & Jerry’s accountable for their anti-Semitic use of their platform and company resources,” said Tom Anderson, a director of the National Legal and Policy Center.

NLPC collaborated with activist investor Michael Asher in support of Unilever divestment by New York State and New York City. In Virginia, Flaherty met with State Attorney General Jason Miyares and urged him to seek divestment of state funds from Unilever. In North Carolina, NLPC asked Treasurer Dale Folwell to divest Unilever holdings from public pension funds.

Black Lives Matter & Patrisse Cullors- As a result of original NLPC research, Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation co-founder Patrisse Cullors was forced to resign from the group in 2021. NLPC’s allegations, detailed in a Complaint to the IRS, related to her purchase of four pieces of real estate, and apparent self-dealing and inurnment. NLPC has also emphasized Cullors’ 2015 call at Harvard Law School for individuals to “step up boldly and courageously to end the imperialist project that’s called Israel.”

NLPC was early in reporting about Black Lives Matter’s (BLM) links to anti-Israel groups. In 2016, Carl Horowitz, then a member of the NLPC staff, wrote a website post titled “Black Lives Matter Activists Join Anti-Israel Boycott.”

Following October 7, NLPC asked Visa, Inc. to remove its BLM endorsement from its website and condemn Hamas and antisemitism. We had raised the BLM issue earlier in the year at the company’s shareholders’ meeting. NLPC had also raised the issue of Coca-Cola’s support for BLM at the company’s annual meeting.

ADL’s Omar Resolution- NLPC has been a persistent critic of Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Talib. While we have cited financial irregularities in a Federal Election Commission complaint against Ocasio-Cortez and a House Ethics Committee complaint against Omar, NLPC has also criticized hostility to Jews by these members. In 2019, NLPC endorsed and publicized the ADL-initiated House resolution condemning Omar.

See this op-ed titled “Antisemitism and Islamophobia: No Moral Equivalence” by Horowitz.

Foreign Funding of U.S. Higher Education- The recent spate of on-campus antisemitic incidents has shed light on the issue of foreign financial support for American colleges and universities, an issue that NLPC has investigated and publicized for several years. See this column by Charles Gasparino that extensively quotes NLPC Counsel Paul Kamenar.

Al Sharpton- Whereas Greenblatt has sought to erase Sharpton’s past, NLPC will not forget his incitements in the 1991 Crown Heights riots, in which a Jew was murdered, nor will we forgive his dangerous statements, such as “If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house.”

Sharpton was fined $285,000 in 2005 by the Federal Election Commission as a result of an NLPC Complaint for running an “off the books” presidential campaign. For several years, NLPC raised the issue of support for Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) at the shareholders’ meetings of American corporations, including PepsiCo, Anheuser-Busch and Colgate-Palmolive.

Unlike the ADL, NLPC has never used the fight against antisemitism as a partisan weapon. In 2010, NLPC objected to the sponsorship of Sharpton’s National Action Network annual meeting by the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the participation of then-RNC Chairman Michael Steele. In 2009, NLPC asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to end his partnership with Sharpton in a campaign for “education reform.” That same year, NLPC criticized then-President George W. Bush for praising Sharpton.

Jesse Jackson- In 2005, the New York Stock Exchange ended its financial support for Jackson’s Citizenship Education Fund, in response to a demand by NLPC that cited Jackson’s 1984 “hymie” and “Hymietown” comments, as well as financial improprieties involving the Fund.

And if none of this is good enough for Greenblatt, it should be noted that NLPC has many Jewish supporters, including prominent individuals and former government officials, several of whom serve on the boards of local and national Jewish organizations.

From 2001 to the time of his death in 2019, Edward M. Ackerman of Dallas was a key advisor and major donor to NLPC. His legacy is carried on today by NLPC and the Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. The ADL itself has partnered with the Ackerman Center.