The focus of the Anti-Defamation League has become entirely warped. Support for Israel was always part of the organization's goals, but typically that was nested within a broader declaration to fight back against hate or discrimination. As seen from the recent removal of the "Protect Civil Rights" section from its website, the ADL has dropped the pretense that its mission is anything besides whatever director Jonathan Greenblatt cares about. The group has begun a new project: using the recent New York City election of Zohran Mamdani to further incite fear and suspicion of Muslims.
This week, Greenblatt announced the launch of the Mamdani Monitor. If you yearned for the days of bigoted hysteria surrounding the "Ground Zero mosque," this is the initiative for you. The Mamdani Monitor's purported goal is to establish a tip line so that anyone can submit incidents of antisemitism in New York City, and to make sure that the new mayor takes them seriously, even though nothing suggests the contrary. When the ADL speaks of Mamdani's "long, disturbing record on issues of deep concern to the Jewish community," that should be interpreted as the politician's criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians. An additional feature of the Mamdani Monitor is to target any of the new administration's appointments who condemn the genocide in Gaza, and harangue them out of a job, essentially functioning as a hyperlocal Canary Mission bootleg.
In a condescending video posted Friday, Greenblatt presented this as a data-driven undertaking, one that would let the numbers speak for themselves. However, there are plenty of reasons to believe that the ADL has at best a loose grasp on statistics. For one, the organization does not differentiate between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. Support of Palestine is categorized as hate speech; the ADL's own employees have said so. Don't be surprised if some instances of pro-Palestine campus protests are included to fill out the spreadsheet. Perhaps Greenblatt will also include Mamdani's use of "purposely confusing and overly complicated sentences" when the mayor-elect explained why he supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement against Israel.
Greenblatt released this morning's video because the bulk of the reaction to the Mamdani Monitor has been disgust. He continues to appeal to paranoia, and insinuate some existential danger to Jewish New Yorkers that he'll never specify. When Greenblatt appeared on Wednesday's edition of the MSNBC show Morning Joe, even host Joe Scarborough found his guest to be a bit overdramatic. At one point, Greenblatt listed recent incidents of violence across the U.S. and implied that Mamdani supported them.
Here's a partial transcript, via Mediaite:
JOE SCARBOROUGH: We’re all shocked, and we all find this abhorrent. And I’m sure that the next mayor would say the same thing, wouldn’t he?
JONATHAN GREENBLATT: You have to ask him.
SCARBOROUGH: I think he has said the same thing. I don’t know, I think you have to—I think you look at the fact that he has gone to one high holiday service after another. He is talking to the Jewish community.
GREENBLATT: That’s not exactly right. He went to an anti-Zionist synagogue, which is like going to the black breakout at CPAC and saying you understand African Americans. I mean, come on.
SCARBOROUGH: You’re saying he hasn’t talked to the Jewish community?
GREENBLATT: I don’t know of a mainstream—now, look, he has been to synagogues. He has Jewish people working for him, for sure. But if you look at the biggest institutions that represent Jewish New Yorkers, I have yet to see him engage with any of those. Now, my hope is the mayor-elect will do so in the days and weeks to come. But in the meantime—
SCARBOROUGH: But you’re not suggesting that he supports the firebombing in Colorado?
GREENBLATT: Joe, I never said that!
SCARBOROUGH: No, but you know—
GREENBLATT: Let me be clear—
SCARBOROUGH: No! There’s a lot of blurring and blending here, Jonathan. And, you know, I love you and you’re on all the time. And we’re always a fierce defender of yours. But you seem to be, like, blurring a lot of things together and then looking into that camera and say: "Call us! We’re going to make sure that he doesn’t support the –"
GREENBLATT: I say to Jewish New Yorkers: "Call us if you feel unsafe." I say to Jewish New Yorkers: "Call us if you are harassed." And so—
SCARBOROUGH: How about you calling his team? Mamdani’s team? Or how about talking to people who may know him and you? Talk to Reverend Al [Sharpton]. Maybe you guys can get together and have lunch and talk. Isn’t that a more constructive thing to do?
GREENBLATT: That would be great.
There's no reason for Mamdani to meet with a hysterical bigot like Greenblatt, but the end of that conversation reveals what this is really about for him: status. As has been written before, Greenblatt operates the ADL as a way to give powerful people or organizations a seal of approval. When they fuck up, they can listen and learn with the ADL, make a donation or visit a museum somewhere, and get absolution for their misdeed. The reason Greenblatt has applied such heavy pressure on New York City's next mayor, in a way that he never has on more powerful fascists like Donald Trump or Elon Musk, is because Mamdani has shown no desire to court his favor, choosing instead to work alongside groups like Jewish Voice for Peace. Since the ADL has found no leverage to apply to this person of status, the Mamdani Monitor is an attempt to create some.
As Greenblatt's ADL continues to sink as low as it can, there's an irony to it all. One reason why Mamdani won the mayoral election was because he successfully delivered a message of community. He built a wide-ranging coalition among New York leaders and politicians, letting people across the city feel like they could have a voice and that it mattered. According to exit polling, a third of Jewish New Yorkers voted for him. When you contrast what Mamdani does with what Greenblatt claims he does, it's starkly ridiculous. As New York City's next mayor brings people together, the ADL is too busy kissing Republican ass and building a network of snitches.
