STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
Bigots used to hide behind white hoods. Today they’re hiding behind smart phones.
And the level of anti-Semitism in America is approaching levels comparable to that of the 1930s in Germany as the Nazis came to power, says Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League.
“We’ve seen an 86 percent increase in anti-Semitism this year. And Latinos and other races are also seeing an increase in hate crimes,” Greenblatt told an audience in Sun Valley this past week. “Social media is allowing people to spread their ideas with a velocity and venom never seen before.”
Greenblatt was recently named the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, which was formed in 1913 to fight anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry.
His grandfather was a Holocaust survivor, and his wife is a political refugee who escaped Iran following the Iranian Revolution.
Greenblatt himself founded Ethnos Water, a premium water company that donated a portion of profits to finance clean water programs in developing countries.
He worked in the Clinton White House in the developing international economic policy with a focus on emerging markets and post-conflict economies. And he served in the White House as special assistant to Barack Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
He spoke before members of the Wood River Jewish Community and other from the local religious community in an unpublicized meeting held at a private home.
Greenblatt said the ADL has learned over the years that “we can’t legislate our way out of hate.” That’s why the organization has promoted anti-bullying programs in schools, trained law enforcement groups about hate crimes and supported the Black Lives Matter movement.
The ADL recently opened a Silicon Valley center to combat the rapid growth in online hate speech.
“When we fight for others, we’re also fighting for ourselves,” he said. “We know that in a world where other people do not have rights, we will lose rights,” Greenblatt said.
Social media is the front line against hate crimes today, Greenblatt said. Since the presidential election, the ADL has charted millions of anti-Semitic tweets. There has been a surge online in anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism and other types of cyber hate, as extremists have been emboldened by the current political climate, he added.
“I could make your hair stand on end if I showed you the pictures sent me by white supremacists,” he said.
Greenblatt noted how Whitefish, Mont., Alt-Right white nationalist leader Richard Spencer had posted names, photos and contact information for several Jewish leaders with a yellow “Jude” star superimposed on their shirts after he declared Jews were hurting the business interests of his mother. Spencer and his new generation of supremacists also inundated Jewish residents of Whitefish with cyber attacks.
“Freedom of speech is not the freedom to slander,” Greenblatt said. “When you suggest violence against my family, that’s a problem.”
Greenblatt said the ADL has testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee to try to make cyberstalking illegal.
“How can you combat such violence when someone has two billion followers on Facebook?” he asked.
As scary as right wing extremists are, the radical left is becoming increasingly scary, Greenblatt said. The radical left tends to use anti-Zionism for cover.
When a Jewish student from Peru wanted to run for student government at Stanford University, she was told she’d get an endorsement only if she supported the boycott of Israel.
“Let’s have a conversation about how Jews control Wall Street and how they manipulate the media,” one student said.
“We’ve got the galloping anti-Semitism of the right and the creeping anti-Semitism of the left,” said Greenblatt. “The best we can do is speak up. The best thing all of us can do in the face of prejudice is not be silent. Fighting prejudice isn’t political. There’s nothing partisanship about it.”