Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a United States-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1913 by the B'nai B'rith "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all."About the ADL The ADL works to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and bigotry, as well as promote interfaith harmony, and identify, analyze, and expose extremism. They have also stated that to "single out Israel in denying the country’s right to exist as a Jewish state and equal member of the global community" is antisemitism, so take that with a grain of salt.https://www.adl.org/resources/tools-and-strategies/what-is-anti-israel-anti-semitic-anti-zionistWith that said, there is a line that can and should be drawn between denying Israel's right to exist and denouncing the depraved shit that the loonies currently in charge of Israel are doing to the Palestinian people. Likewise, there is a strong argument to be made that anti-Zionism is not inherently anti-Semitic — the former is attacking Israeli imperialism, the latter is attacking Jews as an ethnic and/or religious group.
During the 1930s, the ADL conducted espionage on domestic Nazis, including exposing a plot by Nazis to assassinate Hollywood moguls and to blow up munitions factories.Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America by Steven Joseph Ross (2017) Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 1620405636.Birchers: How the John Birch Society Radicalized the American Right by Matthew Dallek (2023) Basic Books. ISBN 1541673565. After World War II, the ADL continued its espionage activities against far-right groups, including the John Birch Society (under the code name "Birch Watchers").
==Controversies==
===Domestic spying operations===
====Support of CIA domestic spying====
 chief of CIA counterintelligence and director of the Israel desk in Washington from 1954 to 1975, was a close ally of Israel and obsessed with the prospect of Communist agents working with dissident movements within the USA. His closeness to the Israeli Mossad led to the perception that he was, in effect, a Mossad "mole" in a top CIA position. He was forced to resign his position in 1975 after the scandal arising from his brainchild which conducted spying on American dissidents from 1967 onwards. CIA spying against American dissidents had, in fact, occurred years earlier, with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). The ADL has been implicated in that effort through their relationship with CIA contract agent who oversaw surveillance efforts against the FPCC in New Orleans. Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray claimed that his handler "Raoul" provided him with an ADL contact in New Orleans who claimed inside knowledge of Dr. King's alleged secret support for the Palestinian cause, denouncing him for "antisemitism." That account, if true, raises suspicion that the ADL was spying on the mainstream Civil Rights movement when CIA domestic spying was ramping up. Ray's account has not been universally accepted as truthful; however, it has gained support from the King family.http://www.unz.com/book/michael_collins_piper__final-judgment/
====Roy Bullock====
The ADL's reputation took something of a hit in 1993 when Roy Bullock, an independent contractor providing much of the ADL's intelligence, was caught by the San Francisco district attorney's office keeping files on numerous individuals and groups from left to right, including Greenpeace, labor unions, anti-Apartheid groups, Religious Right groups, members of the U.S. Congress, and Arab-American groups, and illegally obtaining files from the San Francisco police department. Although the ADL took pains to insist they were Bullock's personal files and not the ADL's, the ADL settled out of court in 1999 with some of the targeted groups who had sued them.Transcripts reveal nearly 40 years of espionage by a man who infiltrated political groups, LA Times
===Armenian genocide===
The ADL's reputation took another hit in 2007 when, in a massively hypocritical move, their director Abraham Foxman opposed US Congressional recognition of the genocide against Armenians that took place 1915-1917; the ADL reversed their official position later that year after a public outcry.ADL Statement on Armenian Genocide, Aug. 21, 2007ADL chief bows to critics, Boston Globe
===Criticism by anti-Zionists===
The ADL has a reputation for conflating anti-Zionist opposition to the political sovereignty and existence of Israel with antisemitism. The organization has directly affirmed that they hold this stance in some materials.ADL page on Anti-Zionism. Archived in August 2023.. Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein have both accused the ADL of smearing Israel's political opponents as antisemites and Jewish critics of Israel as self-hating Jews (including them).Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Burton Levine Anti-Zionist Ben Steigmann wrote a massive crazy email to the ADL with the intention of "refuting the basis of their operations".My refutation of the narrative underlying your operations Joey Kurtzman criticized the ADL for using charges of antisemitism as a bullying tactic.Fire Foxman, Joey Kurtzman
===Defending Musk's Nazi salute ===
During Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration on January 20th, 2025, his billionaire supporter Elon Musk clearly, and rather enthusiastically, gave a Nazi salute-Journalist calls out people for being 'fine' with Elon Musk's Nazi salute but not pronouns. The Advocate. Published January 21, 2025. not once, but twice. And for an organization that sees red at anyone who has ever raised so much as a peep of a criticism of Israel, ADL sure seemed keen to kiss the ring, and normalize and sanewash actual antisemitism:
==Federal Reserve conspiracy theories==
Due to the fact that the Federal Reserve and the ADL were both founded in 1913, anti-Semitic cranks often claim that the ADL was founded as a propaganda front for the Jews that secretly run the Fed.Jewish "Control" of the Federal Reserve: A Classic Anti-Semitic Myth Anti-Defamation League.
==See also==
*Armenian Genocide denial
*Southern Poverty Law Center
==External links==
*Official website
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Judaism
Category:Political action groups
Category:Racism
Category:Antisemitism
Category:Leftists who turned right with age