ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says anti-Semitism crackdown “long postponed”

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Prevention League (ADL), said federal efforts to deal with the anti-Semitic “catastrophe” that plagues university campuses were “long postponed,” but warned that the Trump administration would put overreach at risk.

“Anti-Semitism is at riskit’s a catastrophe that has not paid enough attention from the very institutions it’s going on. Greenblatt told Dana Bash of CNN’s Inside Politics on Tuesday that too long (university) could not address the issue in a strategic and systematic way.

ADL has issued a report On Tuesday, it was found that the anti-Semitism incident in the United States was at its highest since it began tracking in 1979. The report found that there were 9,354 anti-Semitism incidents in 2024, an increase of 5% from the previous year.

Greenblatt attributed it to an increasing trend in anti-Semitism following Hamas’ wild October 7 terrorist attacks in 2023. The report discovered 196 attacks, 2,606 vandalism and 6,552 harassment cases against Jews in 2024.

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American universities, particularly Ivy League schools, have been the flashpoint in the national crisis of anti-Semitism following the attack on October 7th. Jewish students report being targeted for harassment, academic discrimination and violence by student mobs and sometimes teachers attacked by Jewish states and their supporters.

The Trump administration threatened to withhold funds from Columbia, Harvard and other schools unless they agreed to deal with anti-Semitism on campus. Harvard rejects the demand that schools change academic programs and disciplinary practices to address anti-Semitism and perspective discrimination, putting academic independence at risk; He filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration on monday.

“The federal government, which has put billions of dollars into higher education, has the right to expect some degree of accountability from them…and that’s been behind for a long time,” Greenblatt said.

However, the ADL boss warned that the Trump administration’s aggressive response to campus anti-Semitism risks damaging the American higher education system.

Greenblatt said the federal government could target “the root cause of anti-Semitism” with “specific strategic measures” that do not put the entire higher education system at risk.

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Greenblatt was also warned of the administration’s willingness to deport foreign students who are engaged in what they claim to be anti-Semitic activities on university campuses.

Former Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was cleared for deportation In April, after a federal immigration judge ruled that the State Department had met the burden of proof to remove him. Halil, 30, was a spokesman for Colombia’s anti-Israel tent camp.

Greenblat warned that the federal government needs to be clear about how it will take the deportation targets it engaged in the lawsuit.

However, Greenblatt pushed back when Bash asked what he would do to pressure his organization to give these anti-Israeli protesters a legitimate procedure.

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“We are not public advocates of some of these Hamasniks on university campuses. I don’t want to be,” Greenblatt said.