The Anti-Defamation League’s “Never is Now 2024” two-day conference included major speakers: Jared Kushner and United States Attorney General Merrick Garland with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressing the audience of more than 4,000 via a taped message. There were also more than a dozen breakout sessions, with defeating antisemitism on college campuses among the topics addressed.
All fired up, the head of the ADL laid everything on the table.
“An October the eighth world is one in which the prayers for the safety of hostages – men and women, children and the elderly – are met with vial hate speech and moral confusion. An October 8th world is one in which college campuses are policed relentlessly for the smallest of microaggressions. There seems to be no cop on the beat when the insults and threats are screamed at Jewish students. The time for complacency is over,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the ADL.
“We have overcome discrimination, broken barriers and exceeded expectations. We started companies, founded labor unions and cured diseases. We built schools, funded universities and started hospitals. We created theaters, launched studios and started charities. We changed norms, passed laws and secured judgments that made this country better for its Jewish people and ultimately better for all its people.
“The bottom line is that there is not a part of American life that the Jewish community has not touched and impacted for good. The time has come to say the harassment and the attacks must stop. Explaining away your antisemitism will no longer be tolerated. Refusing to prosecute the laws or to enforce your own policies in your institution when the perpetrators are targeting Jews; it must cease. We will not be silent. We will not let our country be lost to the antisemites and the bigots. We will not flee. We will fight and we will win,” Greenblatt concluded.
Kushner’s speech was interrupted by a handful of hecklers. One yelled out “ceasefire,” and another shouted that Kushner was a “warmonger” before being escorted from the room by state police and other law enforcement individuals located throughout the oversized ballroom at the Javits Center in Manhattan. No one moved from their seat and each of the incidents was over in a matter of seconds.
“The Jewish record of achievement can be matched by any person who ever walked the Earth. Jews make up just .2 percent of the global population yet have won 22 percent of the Nobel prizes ever awarded. To make progress, we must engage to eliminate the evil, outmaneuver the opportunists, and educate the ignorant. To start, the Jewish people must be understood, not just by others but by ourselves. Like most religious groups, we are multicultural, multipartisan, multiethnic and multiracial. There are as many ways to be a Jew as there are Jews on Earth,” said Kushner, 43, who runs Affinity Partners, a global investment firm and received the Inaugural Abraham Accords Champion Award, an award recognizing his Middle East diplomacy.
“You know the old joke about having 10 Jews in a room and 11 opinions. I often remind my children that when Rabbi Hillel was challenged to explain the entire Torah while standing on one foot, he replied, “Do unto others as you want others to do to you. That is the entire Torah. The rest is commentary.”
Kushner then switched his oratory to his shuttle diplomacy, which began more than three years ago.
“My being here today is a miracle based on my grandparents surviving the Nazis who tried to kill them. I have always been proud to be a Jew. When I started my diplomacy in the Middle East, it was not lost on me that I was a Jewish-American working with Muslim leaders to make breakthroughs that many members of both of our religions thought were impossible. The Abraham Accords were a result of dialogue, understanding and trust.
Another line of effort we must pursue is to illuminate to others that when you work with the Jews you can be better off. Following the breakthroughs of the Abraham Accords, the economic and social benefits were far better than we had imagined. In August 2020, I took the first-ever commercial flight from Tel Aviv to Abu Dhabi where we were given permission to fly over Saudi Arabia for the first time. Today, there are religious, cultural and scientific collaborations as well as billions of dollars of business being done between these two capitals. Even with the current war, 2023 trade between Israel and the Gulf countries will exceed 2022.
“I was touched by this earlier this month when I was in Abu Dhabi where I met with some of the rabbis and leaders of the Jewish community. We discussed how special they felt to be in this frontier community, and we discussed some of the restrictions that were being placed on community gatherings and how they were being done for their protection and safety. What had occurred so quickly as a coming together between Jews and Muslims in this place, we realized we were taking for granted how unique it was and how young this new relationship is. We all committed to go back to our communities to work [with] each other and to continue to build this strength so it will never be disrupted again.
“I am personally grateful to the many non-Jews who have stood up to be publicly counted as allies to the Jewish people. My heart goes out to the Palestinian people. They could use better friends as well. Supporters who wish to see them thrive are wasting their efforts by scapegoating Israel. They must demand accountability from Palestinian leaders and expect civil behavior from their citizenry. Success, as I define it, is not to fight. Success is having nothing to fight about,” Kushner concluded.
Then Kushner stepped close to a controversial line that received applause as well as derisive screams from those attending the conference.
“You can think whatever you like about Donald Trump but he is not an antisemite. For me, the condemnations by some Jewish groups of the man I know and love, who blessed my wife converting to Judaism, wore a yarmulke when he walked down the aisle at our wedding, proudly attended the brit milah of his Jewish grandson and has always been a strong and vocal supporter for the Jewish people and the state of Israel was confusing. The result of his presidency speaks loudly. When Donald Trump was president, Israel signed five peace deals with its neighbors. Iran and its proxies were suffocating under punishing sanctions. The Golan Heights was returned to Israel and he did what previous presidents have promised but failed to do, which is he moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and finally recognized it as the capital of the Jewish state of Israel.
“Let us honor the legacy of the 1,200 Jews who died on October 7 by using this tragedy to activate Jews from around the world to address the dangers we have sadly ignored. By shifting course, future tragedies can be avoided and their lives and the lives of the non-Jews who have died in this conflict would not have been lost in vain,” Kushner said as he concluded his remarks.
Another major speaker delivered touching remarks at the convention.
“Hate-fueled violence seeks to fracture our society, to isolate us from one another, to pit community against community. It works to make us question our sense of belonging and to lose faith in our institutions. Our democracy promises that all people will be protected in the exercise of their civil rights and the freedom to worship, think as they please and in the peaceful expression of their opinions, beliefs and ideas. It promises that all people will be protected from persecution from violence. Working to fulfill that promise is the Justice Department’s sacred responsibility. The responsibility to fulfill that promise is why I took this job,” said United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, 72, whose name was changed from Garfinkel and who was raised in a Conservative Jewish home in the north Chicago border suburb of Lincolnwood. Garland choked up when he spoke about his family.
“My family fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe at the start of the 20th century. My grandmother who was one of five children, born in what is now Belarus, made it to the United States as did two of her siblings. The other two did not [make it out of Europe]. They were killed in the Holocaust,” Garland said.
“I’m also married to a woman, Lynn, whose mother escaped from Austria in 1938 shortly after Hitler’s army entered Vienna. Under the protection of our laws, she too was able to live without fear of persecution. That protection is what distinguishes America from so many other countries. The equal protection of the law is the foundation of our system of government. I am here today because this country took my family in and protected them when they had nowhere else to go. I also know that the protections afforded to my family have not always been afforded to families that don’t look like mine. Today it is our responsibility. It is the responsibility of the Department of Justice, it is my responsibility as attorney general, it is the responsibility of every American – we must protect each other,” Garland concluded.
Greenblatt unveiled a new alliance, which he said took several years to coalesce.
“It takes a village to make life on campus safe for Jewish students. That’s why ADL has established partnerships with leading campus organizations like Hillel International, AEPi, Jewish on Campus, Olami, The Jewish Agency and other representatives. We are proud to announce that ADL and Chabad on Campus International are partnering to launch a joint initiative to create safer environments for Jewish students at universities and colleges across the country,” Greenblatt, 53, said.
Rabbi Avi Weinstein, chief operating officer of Chabad on Campus International added, “For every hostile protest on campus, there is a Chabad House with a warm, delicious homemade Shabbat meal ready. For every antisemitic slur, we respond with joyous prayer and song and love. For every poster that’s ripped down, we will respond with hundreds more.
“Working together with the ADL will allow us to provide new resources that will empower and protect students. We are extremely grateful to the ADL for working together to fight darkness with light and to keep the Jewish spirit strong on campus. Together, Chabad on Campus and the ADL will protect students’ rights to live freely and safely, inspiring them to be proud advocates while fulfilling our important mission of elevating this world and making it a kinder place, a better place and a holier place. Am Yisrael Chai.”
Nuseir Yassin, 32, CEO of the Nas Company, received the Daniel Perl Award. Yassin rose to fame by doing the crazy task of making 1,000 videos in 1,000 days. Now he is focused on building the Nas Company making video content, crafting incredible experiences and building powerful technology tools for community builders.
Yassin was born in Arraba, Israel, also known as ‘Arrabat al-Battuf,’ an Arab city located in the Lower Galilee in the Northern District. His native language is Palestinian Arabic. He also speaks English and non-fluent Hebrew. Although he was raised as Muslim, he has since largely stopped practicing Islam and has declared himself as a “non-religious Muslim.” Yassin has shifted his self-identification from “Palestinian-Israeli” to “Israeli-Palestinian” following the 2023 attacks on Israel by Hamas. As an Arab citizen of Israel, Yassin’s identity has long incorporated both his Palestinian heritage and his Israeli citizenship.
Another participant in the conference is from Rockland County, New York, which has the highest per capita Jewish community in the country.
“I appreciate the ADL had a session specifically focusing on antisemitism “faced by] the Orthodox community. It is different and we do have different challenges. They are there with us. The ADL has grown to work more with our community and they come to speak up on our behalf and that means a big deal to us,” Rivkie Feiner, 50, of Monsey, a community activist with five children and four grandchildren, told The Jewish Press. Feiner is also the CEO of Feiner Grant Strategies.
“There is a lot of hate towards us not only outside the Jewish community but within the Jewish community. People have to understand they need to build bridges with us and to know we are successful.”
