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Editor’s note: This is longer than the usual ADL email. But it’s worth it to cover 50 fascinating years of insights into the good fight, so please read on!
Dear John,
I recently celebrated my fiftieth anniversary at ADL. It has been a blessing to spend my entire adult life working to combat antisemitism, to protect the Jewish people and to seek justice for all. I am very grateful to my colleagues over the decades, and to you as part of the larger ADL community that is helping me to keep making a difference every day.
When I joined ADL, I was a student working towards my doctorate in history. I decided to take a break from working on my dissertation to spend a year in ADL’s research department. Famous last words. Fifty years later, here I am. But in an amazing moment just weeks ago, I was floored when the President of Yeshiva U. joined an ADL meeting to let me know I would be receiving an honorary doctorate. This would in a way complete the circle for the academic work I set aside all those years ago. I was so moved that my colleagues put that honor in motion.
My Most Memorable Moments
In my fifty years at ADL I have experienced so many compelling moments. Here are just a few that still stand out years, and even decades, later:
When I was a young ADL staffer in 1979, I had the privilege to go to Andrews Air Force base in DC with ADL’s then-National Director, Benjamin Epstein, to join a small group who, in the middle of a foggy night, welcomed back President Jimmy Carter from his trip to seal the historic peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. What a thrill for a staffer who was heavily involved in Israel-related issues!
Many years later, while leading missions to encourage American leaders to speak out against anti-Zionist efforts, I escorted a group of editors of college newspapers to Auschwitz. We ended our visit at the infamous railroad tracks there. We saw a contingent of Israeli officers conducting a ceremony. The lead officer was speaking in Hebrew, and all these years later I still recall his remarks. He talked of all the medical discoveries, scientific breakthroughs and great literature that never happened because of what took place in Auschwitz. He concluded that the best revenge for Auschwitz was to build a healthy democracy in Israel. The young college editors couldn’t understand why at that
moment I broke down in tears.
These and many, many other experiences are why I have such gratitude to ADL for giving me these opportunities.
The Arc of Antisemitism in America
As we approach the High Holidays, a time in Jewish life for contemplation, I think about the current challenges we face from the perspective of those fifty years spent in the fight against hate.
When I started at ADL in the 1970’s, the Jewish community in the United States had just emerged from a period of unofficial but nevertheless institutional antisemitism... quotas at major universities, glass ceilings and more in major industries, and secret covenants barring Jews from certain neighborhoods. ADL played a significant role in shining a spotlight on the problem and pushing for legal, institutional and societal remedies. The resolution of these issues opened up an incomparable period for American Jews.
From then until well into this century, Jews enjoyed the most comfortable life of any Jewish community in the world and, one can argue, in the 2000-year history of the Jewish diaspora.
This, of course, did not mean that everything was perfect. ADL polling consistently showed that tens of millions of Americans harbored antisemitic stereotypes, we tracked antisemitic incidents each year and the “new antisemitism” emerged: the delegitimization of Israel, often as a cover for attacking Jews.
In recent years, things have changed for the worse. Just this week, the latest
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FBI hate crimes data showed that hate crimes targeting the Jewish community made up nearly 60 percent of all religion-based hate crimes, and our annual
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Audit of Antisemitic Incidents has tracked historically high levels in the past several years.
Social media has become the new ingredient in the spreading of this age-old hatred. The pernicious effect of online hate is intersecting with the extreme polarization of society to make now a challenging time in ways unlike any I have experienced in my fifty years at ADL.
There are no magic bullets in addressing these challenges, but a good beginning is trying to reduce the partisanship that has so poisoned the atmosphere.
My test for evaluating whether leaders are serious in fighting antisemitism is whether they are ready to do so when it comes from their own party, their own community, their own ideology. It’s easy to condemn the other side.
A Time for Hope and Resolve
Finally, it is important to remember there is still much good to celebrate. Jews remain free in America to pursue their personal goals. Support by allies from other communities in the face of antisemitism has been unwavering. And despite the anti-Israel rhetoric that is flourishing, there is positive recognition of the trend of Arab states normalizing relations with the Jewish state.
ADL has a unique role in making things better. I have loved working for this organization because we have always addressed the many challenges that we face, both by identifying sources of hatred and by taking action to bring positive change.
Shana Tova, and thank you for being part of the ADL community with me.
Sincerely,
Kenneth Jacobson
Deputy National Director
ADL
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