ADL slammed, now pledges to review its far-left, ‘woke’ educational content

Educational materials from the ADL promote the Black Lives Matter movement and Women’s March, which have both repeatedly said that “Zionists” aren’t welcome.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

One of America’s oldest Jewish organizations is pledging to review its educational materials after a Fox News investigation discovered that the content was heavily inspired by far-left Critical Race Theory (CRT) and praise for movements that are openly anti-Zionist and antisemitic.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which was founded in 1913 to defend Jews from discrimination, has come under fire from critics in recent years for its adoption of left-leaning politics and seeming to ignore left-wing and Islamic antisemitism.

A Fox News probe into the educational materials published by the ADL online, which are intended to be used by teachers, revealed that the organization promotes movements such as Black Lives Matter and the Women’s March, while failing to acknowledge that both of those movements have said “Zionists” are not welcome.

The ADL educational content also recommended that teachers avoid using gendered pronouns, such as he and him, and instead use gender neutral terminology, such as “they” for an individual, in order to “prevent gender bias in children.”

Lesson plans promoting the concepts of white privilege and intersectionality, which are fundamental elements of CRT, were also promoted by the ADL.

An ADL spokesperson told Fox News that “clearly there is content among our curricular materials that is misaligned with ADL’s values and strategy.”

The spokesperson said that the organization plans to “address this issue immediately and openly.”

But to some critics, the promise of a review of the materials doesn’t go far enough.

Josh Hammer, a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation, told Fox News that the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, is “a ‘progressive’ flunky and first-order partisan hack.”

In a statement, the Jewish Leadership Project (JLP) called on Greenblatt to resign immediately.

“This is not a surprise to us,” said JLP co-founder Charles Jacobs. “As we wrote in our recent Newsweek op-ed, ADL leaders, especially CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Obama administration official, have hijacked the one-time stalwart Jewish defense organization to serve —and even promote— radical progressive ideologies that are putting the Jewish community at risk.

“Antisemitism is a five-alarm fire in America right now, and instead of dousing it, the ADL is pouring gasoline on it.”

“This exposé proves what we at JLP have been saying,” said JLP fellow Karys Rhea. “[The] ADL prioritizes political correctness above its responsibility to the Jewish community. After years of ignoring the problem, Greenblatt recently admitted in an op-ed that there’s left-wing Jew-hatred on college campuses.

“Yet ADL’s curriculum is actually making it worse by training students in elementary, middle and high school to become the very left-wing ideologues who harass and target their Jewish classmates.”

ADLAmerican JewsAnti-Defamation LeagueAntisemitismBlack Lives MatterBLMCritical race theoryWokeness