An open letter to Jonathan Greenblatt
c/o the Anti-Defamation League
Dear Mr. Greenblatt,
You could be next. And, respectfully, it might be partly your own fault.
Right now, Trump may be targeting people who are viewed by even reasonable people as dangerous and un-American, but his definition of who is undesirable isn’t bound by any norms, laws, or standards of common decency. Today, a Lebanese kidney specialist at Brown medical school, alleged Venezuelan-gang members, a French scientist, and an anti-Israel organizer at Columbia University.
Tomorrow? Gypsies, socialists, trans people, foreigners, Hunter Biden, and, perhaps, you.
Trump doesn’t need to label you a traitor because you are Jewish; he can easily rant that as a former Commerce Department official in the Clinton White House you promoted globalism and free trade. A court would likely rule that none of this is illegal, let alone treasonous, but Trump has already shown he is happy to defy the legal system.
He is just as determined to use the fig leaf of anti-Semitism to bully liberal academia into submission. On Friday, Columbia University caved and agreed to make changes to its protest rules, campus security, and department of Middle Eastern studies after Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in federal funding.
Universities are notoriously fragile under pressure. During the McCarthy era, most college deans and professors meekly signed “loyalty oaths” to avoid being tarred as Communists. The few who declined on principle were fired.
Trump has also proved there is nothing he won’t stoop to, no matter how vile, false, or unfair. So, in a crisis, why wouldn’t he reach for a vilifying slur that has proven effective time after time?
If the stock market crashes, what is to prevent Trump from blaming it on George Soros, the Rothschilds, and Goldman Sachs? It won’t matter to Trump that his daughter Ivanka married a Jew and converted. The only thing he cares about is protecting himself. And blaming others. If the economy collapses—an increasingly likely scenario—even pro-Trump billionaires such as Bill Ackman, Stephen Schwarzman, Miriam Adelson, and Nelson Peltz might not be spared from scapegoating.
And if the worst happens? Trump has already demanded that the judge who ruled against him in the Venezuelan-deportation case, James Boasberg, be impeached. That was so egregious Chief Justice John Roberts issued a neutrally worded but noteworthy reprimand. Now Roberts, a conservative who was nominated by George W. Bush, is being pilloried by MAGA social-media mobs and Fox News. (Meanwhile, Elon Musk and MAGA acolytes are trolling Judge Boasberg’s daughter.)
The American Civil Liberties Union might try to help you out. But by then Trump will probably have sued its leaders for D.E.I. offenses, which he defines as “civil-rights violations.” Or hate crimes: Trump is so perverse he could twist history into farce and retroactively prosecute the A.C.L.U. for defending neo-Nazis’ right to march through Skokie, Illinois, as the organization (it was Jewish-led at the time) famously did to uphold free speech in 1977. Wouldn’t that be rich?
Go ahead and try to find an attorney to defend you. Trump has gone after high-powered Washington law firms such as Perkins Coie and Covington & Burling—basically, any firm that has crossed him. The New York Times on Friday reported that rather than fight an executive order that could be ruled illegal, the tough-as-nails firm of Paul, Weiss knuckled under, agreeing to contribute $40 million in legal services to causes including Trump’s Presidential Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The firm also disavowed a former partner, who as a prosecutor once tried to build a case against Trump.
So it was disheartening, but not surprising, when Arnold & Porter, a firm that fiercely defended government employees who were tarred as Communists under McCarthyism, dropped their defense of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, the Lebanese kidney specialist, the weekend after her expulsion.
That echoes the case of Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian organizer who was snatched by ICE even though he has a green card and is married to an American citizen, who was also eight months pregnant. Trump sold the move as a blow against anti-Semitism, and you fell for it.
“We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism,” the A.D.L. stated on X (of all places).
Khalil may conceivably be guilty of anti-Semitism, but such speech is protected by the First Amendment, or at least it used to be. No evidence has been presented for any material support for Hamas, and Khalil has not been charged with any crime.
A lot of people are staying silent on the grounds that Trump will at least have Israel’s back. Just look at his plans for Gaz-a-Lago! But given that he just set fire to 75 years of bipartisan foreign policy and allegiance to the Western alliance by sabotaging Ukraine to curry favor with Putin, even you must concede that, with Trump, loyalty is a one-way street.
We do commend you for giving in to pressure and pulling out of the upcoming anti-Semitism conference being hosted by Israel, which has stirred controversy over the inclusion of several representatives of far-right European parties.
“Since the explosion of left-inspired anti-Semitism and anti-Israel hate in the last several years, the pseudo-Fascist right is trying to use the Jewish community as a platform, to demonstrate how legitimate and tolerant they are,” your predecessor at the A.D.L., Abraham Foxman, said in a statement aimed at you. “Israel and the Jewish community should not give them legitimacy.”
Granted, preachy predecessors can be annoying, but in this case Foxman happens to be right.
You are coddling Trump and his cronies when you should be condemning them. You defended Elon Musk’s Nazi salute as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.” Only after Musk made several jokes about the incident did you finally condemn him.
The A.D.L. is one of the most respected and powerful lobby groups of all. So you are in a unique position to stand up to Trump. Your pro-Israel credentials are impeccable, and if someone so devoted to stamping out anti-Semitism would actually come to the defense of people recklessly and cynically accused of being anti-Semitic, it would be a lesson for all Americans, including members of Congress, that principles still matter.
Who wants to stick up for accused drug dealers, Hezbollah supporters, and anti-Israel activists? Well, you should. Because Trump has shown that he will use the power of the state to go after anyone who gets in his way.
Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Best wishes,
Your friends at Air Mail.
Alessandra Stanley is a Co-Editor at AIR MAIL
