Dear John,

Today, we congratulate President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. on his milestone election victory. We also congratulate Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, who will be the first woman and woman of color to hold the office.

We call on both Democrats and Republicans to ensure a peaceful transfer of power once the election results have been validated.

This has been an election year without precedent in American history, not only due to the challenges of the pandemic, but also because it took place in the shadow of record levels of antisemitism and rising hate, the mainstreaming of online conspiracy theories such as QAnon, our country’s long overdue reckoning with systemic racism and attempts by domestic extremists to undermine the voting process. And yet, despite the challenges, Americans turned out in historic numbers. The unprecedented level of civic participation is a powerful testament to the enduring strength of our democracy and the right of every American to have a voice and a vote.

We are deeply appreciative of the election workers who labored tirelessly day and night to ensure that the votes are collected and counted accurately. It is vitally important that every vote must be counted — and recounted as necessary — to properly validate the results. And yet this is no time for baseless recriminations or false claims that the election was “stolen” or that the vote was somehow not valid. We hope that all parties will allow the process to run its course — and that the 46th president of the United States will be sworn into office in January 2021.

We hope that all Americans — liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, affiliated and unaffiliated — can unite after this bitter season and find common ground in working together to solve the myriad challenges that face our nation and the world.

Please join me tomorrow at the Never Is Now Summit’s Opening Session for a discussion of this historic election with our expert panel.

America is stronger when we unite and now is the time to find a path forward, together.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director

ADL