ADL Conference Highlights Fighting Hate and Growing Antisemitism

To the uninitiated, the two-day conference hosted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on Manhattan’s west side focused on hatred and eradicating antisemitism. This might seem like a retread from previous years, but the crowds keep growing even as the head-scratching at the end seems to remain the same, with a similar refrain: where do we go from here?

This year the conference attracted approximately 3,500 attendees, mostly Jewish, from one end of the religious spectrum to the other – from the most Orthodox to the most liberal and the secular. Those at the gathering were able to choose from 27 seminars and several educational sessions in the mainstage ballroom.

And to the uninitiated, for the most part the organizers seemed to be preaching to the converted. All the attendees were against hatred and wanted to eradicate antisemitism. Most of the speakers definitely delivered impassioned messages and speeches.

Outside the massive convention center were pro-Palestinian protesters who chanted for the destruction of Israel, calling Israel a terrorist state, waving the Iranian flag and holding signs that read “Zionism = Terrorism.” Some protesters had their faces covered; others did not.

The crowd of protesters were carefully under surveillance by a phalanx of New York State Troopers and police officers from the New York Police Department. There was no apparent interaction between the opposing forces. The protesters made no attempt to enter the Javits Center and the organizers of the event did not engage with them as they entered. It was as if never the twain shall meet.

ADL organizers, which spent a significant amount of money to pull off this extraordinary effort also raised an equal amount of funds from sponsorships and loyal supporters. It was their platform to educate the attendees the way they wanted to and they were in no mood to tolerate an opposing point of view from haters who might have been significant disruptors to an otherwise peaceful gathering.

Scott Richman, ADL’s regional director for New York and New Jersey, said he heard from attendees, “Sometimes we feel alone but today we feel empowered by being with [like-minded] people. Sometimes they feel beaten down by social media, they feel beaten down by people that they interact with at work or wherever, and this showed them that there is a large community of people who believe like they do. We need to fight against this. They’re not just dreaming this and they felt empowered.”

Richman moderated a panel discussion focused on antisemitism in New York City.

“The panelists spoke about the practical things we need to do and the legislation we need to put in place, the actions that people need to take,” Richman told The Jewish Press. “We have voices too. We need to speak out against the kind of hate that we see. We need to say that museums cannot exclude Jewish artists, they cannot exclude Israeli artists and we have voices. We give money to these museums, we are engaged in these museums and we need to say, this isn’t right. You need to do better. And just like what we’re doing with the Mamdani Monitor and just like what we’re doing with our Ratings and Assessment Institute, we are going to unveil a monitor about museums. This has been announced publicly and it’s going to put pressure on these museums. Civil society needs to step in and say this is not acceptable.”

A large number of attendees were students from across the country. The ADL is trying to get to the next generation of youngsters to carry-on the understanding of what makes antisemites do what they do in an effort to combat the hatred.

Rabbi Mendel Metzger, 24, is based at the Chabad of Midtown in Manhattan. He grew up in the Murray Hill section on Manhattan’s east side. He obtained his semicha recently from Machon Smicha, an online rabbinical ordination study program which began in 2019 by Rabbi Shlomo Chaim Kesselman, a Crown Heights resident. Like so many others, Rabbi Metzger subscribes to the theory that sunlight is the best disinfectant when it comes to the darkness brought on by hate.

“A big part of what I meant by education is not just what we’re taking out of the books but what we’re putting into it. I think we need to infuse the world around us with a sense of purpose,” Rabbi Metzger, 24, told The Jewish Press.

“A lot of times antisemitism might come from a certain empty feeling that people have about themselves. They look at such a productive and beautiful nation. The instinct is instead of it being ‘let me emulate that,’ [their instinct is,] ‘if I can’t live a meaningful life, then he can’t either.’ Then they strive for our elimination and take an antagonistic stance towards Jews. I think we need to infuse the world with a sense of purpose, positivity and embracing people around them. Ultimately, antisemitism will automatically fall to the wayside. We won’t have to confront it by fighting it on street corners. We won’t have to enforce it because we’re educated.”

The final speaker at the conference was Masih Alinejad (her formal name is Masoumeh Alinejad-Ghomikolayi). Ironically, she was born on September 11 – 49 years ago – in 1976 in Qomi Kola, Babol, Iran. She was billed by the ADL as an Iranian-American political activist who was forced into exile in 2009 for exposing corruption within the Islamic Republic. Alinejad has become a global voice against authoritarianism and gender oppression by leading a global campaign for democracy and to end gender apartheid in Iran.

“I don’t want this war. I never asked for this war. None of my people in Iran wanted this war. This is a war being imposed on us by the Islamic Republic. We know this very well. This is a war being waged on us by our own regime,” Alinejad told the ADL crowd. “We are telling the U.S. government and Netanyahu, if you can hear me, do not leave my people with a wounded regime because they will rebel with Iranian machinery weapons and take revenge on innocent Iranian people. We need an end to the Islamic Republic and please – Democrats, Republicans – don’t be allergic to the term regime change. Be allergic to dictatorship.”