Full Description
For over a century, the Anti-Defamation League has been regarded as one of the most prominent civil rights watchdogs in the United States, dedicated to fighting white supremacy, antisemitism, and extremism. Its data informs law enforcement. Its trainings shape classrooms. And its talking points influence the headlines.
But behind the ADL's progressive image lies a very different reality. The Anti-Defimation Leage: A Critical Reader brings together a collective of scholars, organizers, and activists to expose the ADL as a deeply reactionary and conservative force in American politics. From its roots in a Cold War-era framework of Western supremacy and settler colonialism, to its modern day support for militarized policing, surveillance, and the repression of Palestinian rights, the ADL has long advanced a vision of justice rooted in empire, not liberation.
Contributors trace how the ADL has weaponized the charge of antisemitism to shield itself from criticism, silence dissent, and undermine movements for racial justice, Palestinian freedom, and collective safety. As the call to #DropTheADL grows louder, so too does the need for urgent reflection and action.
Contents
Introduction - Emmaia Gelman and Heike Schotten
A Note on Language
I. The ADL's First Hundred Years
1. Settler Roots, Cold War Branches, and Astroturfing: the ADL's First Hundred Years - Emmaia Gelman
2. An American Judenrat at the Rosenberg Trial: The ADL's Embrace of McCarthyist Antisemitism - Max Greenberg
3. Policing Palestine, Black Power, and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement: The ADL in the 1960s-70s - Abdeen Jabara, with Charlotte Rosen
4. The ADL, Neoconservatism, and the 'New Antisemitism' - Heike Schotten
5. Not Quite Right? The Challenge of Ideologically Situating the ADL - A.J. Bauer
II. The ADL's Repression of Antiracist and Social Justice Movements
6. The Arab Terrorist and the Black Antisemitic Demagogue: The ADL as a Racist Intelligence Agency - Stephen Sheehi
7. The ADL against Migrant Justice - Sophia Elena Gurulé
8. The ADL and 'Indigenous Sovereignty' - Kevin Bruyneel
9. The ADL and 'Fighting Islamophobia' - Hatem Bazian
10. The ADL's Panic over Jewish Voice for Peace: Who Speaks for Jews? - Lesley Williams
11. Zionist Gentrification, Pinkwashing, and Colonial Violence: The ADL in San Francisco - Mama Ganuush
III. Education as Battle Terrain: The ADL in Schools and on Campus
12. The ADL, Conservative Megadonors, and the Repression of Speech in Higher Education - Isaac Kamola
13. The Assault on K-12 Antiracist Education: From conservative 'Anti-Bias' Training to Anti-CRT - Nora Lester Murad and Merrie Najimy, with Emmaia Gelman
14. The ADL's War on Ethnic Studies - Jody Sokolower
15. The ADL, Anti-Bias Education, and Holocaust Education - Sol Brager
16. The ADL's Role on College Campuses - Carrie Zaremba
17. The ADL, IHRA, and 'Zionist Identity Rights' - Amira Jarmakani
IV. The ADL and Surveillance, Policing, and War
18. How to Hide a Genocide: The ADL's Violence in Gaza - Muhannad Ayyash
19. The ADL and the Anti-Palestinian Origins of U.S. Terrorism Law - Darryl Li
20. Criminalizing Dissent: The ADL's Role in Countering Violent Extremism Programs - Nicole Nguyen
21. Targeting Our Communities, from CVE to 'Black Identity Extremists'- StopLAPD Spying Coalition
22. The ADL's 'Securitized Antisemitism' - Maryam Jamshidi
23. The ADL and the 'Hate Crimes' Framework - Dean Spade
24. To Know the Enemy: Counterinsurgency, Lexical Warfare, and the ADL - Dylan Rodríguez
V. Conservative Megadonors and Corporate Clout: The ADL and Capital
25. The ADL, DEI, and Big Tech - Lau Barrios
26. The Non-Profit Industrial Complex and Conservative Capital: The ADL as a product of U.S. class
structures - Ahmed Moor
27. The ADL's War on Socially Conscious Investing - Felice Gelman
