Dear John,

I’m writing to you from London, the final leg on a week-long trip to Europe, to share a few thoughts on how ADL’s voice is being heard — how your voice as part of the ADL community is being heard — here in Europe and around the world.

Why was it so critical to be here this week, despite the difficulties of traveling during Covid? I had the opportunity, along with our SVP for International Affairs Sharon Nazarian, to represent ADL in Sweden at the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism alongside government leaders from around the world and experts on combatting antisemitism and hate.

HOW ADL CAN HELP FIGHT GLOBAL ANTISEMITISM

We shared ADL’s expertise on countering extremism, fighting online hate and educating against antisemitism and all forms of hate with these influential attendees. We presented BINAH, our first-ever digital education program for non-Jewish high school students about Jews, Judaism and antisemitism, which can be a powerful tool to counter misinformation among people uninformed about these issues. BINAH can help fill that gap globally and do it at scale.

If Malmo sounds familiar to you, it may be from a decade of disturbing antisemitic attacks in the headlines, including firebombings of the synagogue and cemetery, frequent street assaults on identifiable Jews, and other heinous acts of antisemitism against the local Jewish community. But in recent years, the city has tackled antisemitism head on, determined to be a city of tolerance, not hate.

At the conference, we were inspired by the clarion call from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who said in no uncertain terms that fighting antisemitism is a global priority and that “a society that has no room for diversity has no room for humanity.” U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken, himself the stepson of a Holocaust survivor, pledged new U.S. commitments in the fight against antisemitism and Holocaust denial. The Secretary noted that the nomination of Deborah Lipstadt to be the next U.S. Antisemitism Envoy is another important step. Once confirmed, she will be a watchdog for the Jewish community in her work around the world. (You can help by signing ADL’s petition for Senate confirmation of her nomination.)

BUILDING ALLIANCES FOR THE GOOD FIGHT

In Berlin earlier this week, we met with leaders in Germany’s Jewish community, and discussed new ways to fight antisemitism together. We also sat down with our past International Leadership Award honoree Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, Europe’s largest publishing house, who has long made principled stands against antisemitism and in defense of the Jewish state of Israel, and talked with Hans Dieter Pötsch, the Chair of Volkswagen, which has generously supported a variety of key ADL programs, including ADL’s Global 100 poll of antisemitic attitudes around the world.

Here in the UK, I’ve met with my friends at the Chelsea Football Club to talk about online hate and harassment. Chelsea FC is doing vital work in fighting antisemitism and hate both in the soccer community and more widely in society. I’m also looking forward to sitting down later today with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, a longtime special advisor to the ADL board, for his insights about antisemitism in Europe. The Tony Blair Institute has become a great partner with whom we recently published a report on “Peace and Tolerance Education in the Middle East” and we look forward to more joint projects.

Fighting antisemitism effectively requires a global effort. ADL is working with international partners to expand this, and with your support, we will continue to do just that.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director

ADL