Open Letter to Educators

The ADL is Not a Social Justice Partner

  • The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has long marketed itself as an expert advisor to school communities on antisemitism and other forms of bias. However, despite its reputation as a civil rights organization, the ADL is not the social justice educational partner it claims to be. 

    The ADL is a divisive political interest group that:

    • sidelines historical, contextual, and systemic analyses of bias and racism in their curricula, focusing instead on individual feelings and actions; 
    • restricts genuine inquiry in classrooms with pedagogy and content that leave little room for truly questioning assumptions and debating diverse perspectives on a wide range of topics;
    • distorts the definition of “antisemitism” in ways that stoke fear among many Jews and pit Jewish comfort against Palestinian rights;
    • pushes local, state, and federal educational policy that defends Israel at the expense of the rights of Palestinians, other people of color, and Jews who reject ethnonationalism;
    • attacks schools, educators, and students with bad-faith accusations of antisemitism in order to silence and punish constitutionally-protected criticism of Israel and the political ideology of Zionism.

    Like policymakers and major media outlets, schools mistakenly rely on the ADL as a credible source of information about what constitutes antisemitism and its extent in the United States today. But analysis by scholars and journalists makes it clear that the ADL systematically distorts people’s understanding of antisemitism by including criticism of Israel as an indicator of hatred toward Jews. They distort the prevalence of antisemitism by including legal, nonviolent Palestinian solidarity actions as “bias incidents” in their statistics. By the ADL’s own count, some two-thirds of the bias incidents since October 7 have related to Israel. 

    For all of these reasons, we ask you to reconsider your partnership with the ADL.

    We further urge you to join in nationwide efforts to drop the ADL from schools by taking the following actions:  

    1. Cut all ties with the ADL, including use or endorsement of their curricular materials, participation in their programs, and engagement in their professional development offerings;
    2. End contracts with the ADL as consultants on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) policy, programming, or bias incident response – even when services are offered free of  charge;
    3. Stop referencing the ADL’s discredited statistics, and stop sending data or information of any kind to the ADL;
    4. Ensure that all your institutional relationships and contracts truly uphold and promote principles of equality and dignity for all students who may be the targets of racism or bigotry of any kind.

    Signatories:

  1. American Muslims for Palestine – NJ
  2. Arab American Civic Council
  3. Armenian Organized Resistance Coalition (ARMOR)
  4. ​​Black Lives Matter Paterson
  5. CAIR-LA
  6. CAIR NJ
  7. California Scholars for Academic Freedom
  8. Dallas Peace and Justice Center
  9. EduColor
  10. Freedom Socialist Party
  11. Generation Common Good
  12. If Americans Knew
  13. IfNotNow Boston
  14. Islamophobia Studies Center
  15. Jewish Boomers Against Occupation in Palestine
  16. Jews Against White Supremacy UCSC
  17. Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
  18. Judaism On Our Own Terms (JOOOT)
  19. Los Angeles Educators for Justice in Palestine 
  20. Making Mensches
  21. MapSO Freedom School
  22. Masjid Al Wadud
  23. Moroccan Organization for the Protection of Human Rights
  24. Muslim Counterpublics Lab
  25. Muslim Justice League
  1. Muslims for Just Futures
  2. National Arab American Women’s Association
  3. Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation
  4. NorCal Sabeel
  5. NYC Educators for Palestine
  6. Palestine Arab & Muslim Caucus of CFA
  7. Palestinian American Community Center
  8. Philadelphia Parents for Palestine
  9. Radical Elders
  10. Radical Teacher
  11. Radical Women – U.S.
  12. Raising Luminaries
  13. Rutgers Faculty for Justice in Palestine
  14. Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
  15. Saphron Initiative
  16. Sawa – Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice
  17. Stop LAPD Spying Coalition 
  18. Teach for Liberation
  19. The Justice Coalition Action
  20. The Progressive Classroom Project
  21. UMass Boston Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
  22. UnKoch My Campus
  23. VietRISE
  24. Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR)
  25. Warm Cookies of the Revolution
  26. Yalla Indivisible 
76 organizational signatories and counting... 
300 + individuals want to drop the ADL from schools