By Jonathan S. Tobin

(SEPTEMBER 15, 2022 / JNS) The revelation that the school curricula being distributed by the Anti-Defamation League as part of their anti-hate programs are filled with critical race theory teachings is shocking, says JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin.

But when seen in the context of everything that has happened during the Jewish defense agency’s transformation in the last several years under CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, it’s hardly surprising, he notes.

According to Tobin, the critical race theory indoctrination being spread by the ADL illustrates that the vital Jewish defense agency has “betrayed its mission,” because “woke leftist ideas that legitimate racialist attitudes are linked to Jew hatred.”

He explains that the ADL is now “mired in leftist ideology in which it has bought into the BLM agenda of equity as opposed to equality.” By emphasizing ideas about race and privilege even though doing so “gives a boost to the lies about Israel being an ‘apartheid state,’” the ADL “undermines the interests and security of the people they’re supposed to be standing up for,” he says.

He’s then joined by LegalInsurrecution.com’s William Jacobson who explains that critical race theory is based on the idea that the American system is “completely corrupted, and completely racist, and … needs to be torn down.” Its goals, he says, are “the exact opposite of the American civil rights movement,” and seek to racialize society almost in the same way as apartheid-era South Africa.

More than that, he argues, it has become inextricably linked with anti-Israel and antisemitic ideas about Jews being white oppressors.

As Jacobson notes, the ADL has embraced all this because “it fits in with their left-wing narrative.” The organization, he says, has remade itself into a “social justice organization” and become “a functional arm of the Democratic Party.” In doing so, “They’ve burned bridges to anyone who is right of center. And that’s not healthy for the fight against antisemitism.”

Though the group still defines in terms of combating antisemitism, it has ceased to do so, becoming a mere part of the political back and forth in a divided society, in which they prefer to demonize former President Donald Trump and his supporters, he says.

Moreover, by involving itself in efforts to censor free speech on the Internet, the ADL fails to realize that the same tactics can be used by leftist elites to target Jews and supporters of Israel, he adds.

This article was originally published in JNS and can be viewed here.