Jewish Academics Denounce Flawed ADL Antisemitism Hate Crime Data

The ADL’s audit of antisemitic incidents was characterized as ‘misleading and dangerous’ for Jewish people while glossing over the most targeted group, Black people

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Made up of over 150 Jewish academics and staff members from Boston-area universities, the Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff (CJFS) slammed the Trump administration’s and the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) cynical use of antisemitism to “smear and unlawfully crack down on students and universities across the country,” while challenging the ADL’s data in its recent 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents report.

Last year’s ADL report fell under similar scrutiny after Jewish Currents revealed that the methodology was flawed. Jewish Currents found that more than 1,000 incidents were misclassified as antisemitic, the data included misapplications of the organization’s own standards, and the group didn’t provide enough information to validate certain incidents.

“Since we found that most alleged antisemitic incidents in the Palestine solidarity movement lacked merit, the legitimately antisemitic Palestine-related incidents would appear as mere statistical noise when compared with the stunning growth of organized white nationalism,” reads the Jewish Currents report examining the ADL’s 2023 data on antisemitism

For many of us who track hate groups and hate group activity, ADL data is always taken with a grain of salt. While we advise never playing “Oppression Olympics,” the ADL often does just that by making claims that soften the impacts on the most targeted group in the United States: Black people. For example, according to FBI hate crime statistics, Black people were targeted 2,207 times, Jewish people were targeted 1,504 times, followed by anti-Gay and anti-trans hate crimes (1540 combined), topping the list of most affected groups.

There’s no doubt that antisemitism is on the rise right alongside white nationalist and neo-Nazi hate groups. However, the ADL data doesn’t concentrate on these groups where the ideas are spread. Instead has been keenly focused on people criticizing Israel’s policies. Meanwhile, those hate groups are targeting myriad marginalized groups that are regularly overlooked due to an inordinate amount of focus on false claims of antisemitism.

“It’s easy for policymakers to ignore technical issues about data and research methods,” said Jeremy Menchik, Former Associate Director, ADL New York Regional Office; Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Boston University. “But the stakes are too high for policymakers to rely on the ADL’s deliberately misleading tally of antisemitic incidents.”

In March, the CJFS wrote a letter titled “Not in Our Name,” signed by more than 1,500 academics denouncing “anyone who invokes our name – and cynical claims of antisemitism – to harass, expel, arrest, or deport members of our campus communities.” The letter also called out the Trump administration’s “Christian Nationalist agenda,” after the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who is constitutionally protected.

Mainstream media’s focus on campus protests and not hate groups is dangerous for every marginalized group, as hate groups roam freely, often with the support of local police

After many media outlets published the data and reported the ADL’s purported findings without scrutinizing the data, CJFS rejected the ADL’s latest report because it whitewashes the impacts of the worst offenders: white supremacists. The framing of the ADL report and the ensuing reports from media outlets across the country suggest that college students are the biggest culprits. At the same time, hate groups roam freely in our communities and get little attention.

“We therefore call on Jewish people of conscience everywhere, and on our university leaders and elected officials, to join us in rejecting the ADL’s ‘Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2024’ and in demanding an honest accounting of antisemitism—one that refuses to criminalize legitimate political dissent and recognizes that criticism of Israel is not, in itself, antisemitic,” reads the statement from CJFS about the ADL’s 2024 antisemitic incidents report.

Two weeks ago, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs also denounced using antisemitism to justify ignoring due process rights and silencing speech. The joint statement included the council, which represents the four largest Jewish denominations, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, the American Conference of Cantors, Central Conference of American Rabbis, HIAS, Rabbinical Assembly, Reconstructing Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, and the Union for Reform Judaism.

“In recent weeks, escalating federal actions have used the guise of fighting antisemitism to justify stripping students of due process rights when they face arrest and/or deportation, as well as to threaten billions in academic research and education funding,” reads the statement from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. “Students have been arrested at home and on the street with no transparency as to why they are being held or deported, and in certain cases with the implication that they are being punished for their constitutionally-protected speech.”

It serves no one to confuse what constitutes a hate crime or to change what antisemitism is while ignoring the violent actions of the worst offenders: hate groups. This inevitably causes harm to Jewish people as neo-Nazis are ignored in favor of targeting non-white groups speaking out against slaughtering and starving children. It also puts Black people, Indigenous people, Latinos, and the LGBTQ community at greater risk because crimes against them are being ignored.

Conflating criticism of a government and calling for an end to war is not and will never be a hate crime. A government involved in war efforts, particularly those that are genocidal, should expect to be asked about it without criminalizing the people asking. Government mouthpieces should be prepared to answer tough questions resulting from the atrocities they cause when journalists do their job and hold truth to power. Groups that support those governments should be ready too.

The ADL is no exception.

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