‘Charlottesville-style mobs everyday:’ ADL chief calls out Anti-Zionist college protests
The rhetoric around Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza is putting the safety of Jewish college students at risk.
That was part of the message delivered by Anti-Defamation League chief Jonathan Greenblatt at a Monday night event organized by TCU’s Brite Divintiy School.
He was speaking to a packed audience of about 1,000 as part the school’s annual Gates of Chai lecture, which promotes dialogue on topics relevant to contemporary Judaism.
Only 39% of Jewish college students are comfortable with their peers knowing their Jewish, Greenblatt said, citing an ADL survey. That same survey also found 73% of Jewish college students have experienced some form of antisemitism since the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
In response the ADL is training a stable of lawyers to go after universities that don’t adequately protect their Jewish students. Greenblatt said it’s important to put pressure on colleges and universities to uphold federal laws protecting Jewish students from discrimination.
He said protests supporting the rights of Palestinians at the expense of Jews and the state of Israel are inherently antisemitic. He compared those protests to the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where marchers chanted the phrase, “Jews will not replace us.”
“We’re seeing Charlottesville-style mobs everyday... essentially saying ‘Zionists, we will replace you,” he said.
He evoked the images of families slaughtered by Hamas terrorists during the group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed roughly 1,200 civilians and had around 250 hostages captured.
While many Jews and Israelis are still coping with the trauma from the attack, public opinion polling has shown a growing number of Americans critical of the way Israel has prosecuted the war.
It’s painfully remarkable how quickly society has either forgotten or chosen to deny the horrors of Hamas’ Oct. 7 terrorist attack, Greenblatt said referencing statements by celebrities and politicians.
“It isn’t evil, they told us. It’s understandable. It isn’t wicked, we heard. It was justified. It isn’t prejudice. It was political, and it wasn’t rape. It was resistance,” Greenblatt said giving examples of some of the arguments.
Greenblatt evoked the memory his German-born grandfather who used to tell him stories of how tolerant Germany was toward its Jewish citizens prior to the rise of the Nazi-regime. He told a similar story about the tolerance his in-laws experienced in Iran before being forced to flee due to the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“I don’t want to tell my future grandchildren that America was a wonderful and beautiful place for its Jews and all its people till Oct. 7, 2023,” he said.
Greenblatt’s speech was briefly interrupted by a group of about 20 protesters who voiced criticism of the ADL, accusing the organization of using a broad definition of antisemitism to silence criticism of the state of Israel.
Some of the protesters spoke at a Nov. 7 Fort Worth city council meeting where they criticized the city for its support of the state of Israel.
It’s fair to criticize Israeli government policy or the actions of individual politicians, Greenblatt said speaking after the event Monday.
“But there’s something different when you deny the rights of Jews that you would afford other people,” he said.
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