By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Jonathan Greenblatt, Zohran Mamdani’s new mayoral “campaign manager,” helped build the candidate’s legitimacy as solidly as anyone could.
The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League moonlighting as Mamdani’s campaign manager? Not officially, but Greenblatt earned the title on Monday last week when he proclaimed that the much-maligned Mamdani has yet to address Jewish New Yorkers at synagogues or any other Jewish institution.
Mamdani, a Muslim, refuses to condemn the phrase “Globalize the Intifada” – which could mean an Islamic war against the world – and plans to disinvest from Israel if he is elected mayor of New York City in November. He won the Democratic nomination last June. His father has denounced Israel’s existence.
The Forward website, previously a respected Jewish newspaper, reports differently. Mamdani, who is at best distrusted by Jews, has indeed visited synagogues and other Jewish facilities.
“I think there are questions we should ask right now, like, this candidate has visited churches and mosques, not a single synagogue,” Greenblatt told an interviewer on CNBC’s Squawk Box.
Not so, according to the Forward. Mamdani attended Shabbat services in Park Slope in Brooklyn last February, visited the offices of the UJA Federation for a town hall co-hosted with the Jewish Community Relations Council last May, and participated in two candidate forums at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan the following month.
Greenblatt, who was named ADL’s CEO more than a decade ago, made it worse for himself when an ADL spokesperson tried to walk back his remarks, saying, “Jonathan was talking engagement after the primary, when voters now have their options before them and [Mamdani] hasn’t gone to a mainstream synagogue or Jewish organization since the primary ended.”
Comforting that Greenblatt was referring to what happened after the primary. Whether you buy that story or not, it was clumsy of him not to clarify that from the outset.
Greenblatt would have been better off had he confronted the findings of the Forward report by himself. If he is wrong, he should apologize and move on.
Allowing his public relations department to attempt to clarify what is unclarifiable makes him look silly.
Greenblatt’s conduct here is surprising. He has made gaffes before, but this was serious. He leads the most respected Jewish institution in America and Mamdani is the most prominent pro-Arab activist poised to become possibly the next mayor of New York City, our most populous city with the highest population of Jews (estimated at 960,000) in the country.
He falsely accused Mamdani of ignoring Jewish voters without bothering to do his homework.
“This candidate has gone to Harlem to meet the Black community; Washington Heights, to meet the Latino community; Chinatown, to meet the Asian American community,” Greenblatt also said. “He hasn’t been to any of the mainstream Jewish institutions…I haven’t heard from him. I don’t think the heads of most of the major Jewish groups have.
“He went to meet Rev. Sharpton in Harlem? Why hasn’t he met any mainstream Jewish leaders in a public forum where his views can be aired? I think we know why. Because I think he was a Students for Justice in Palestine organizer who proposed legislation in Albany to restrict the ability of Jews to donate, or anyone to donate to Israeli organizations.”
Some of Greenblatt’s comments are true, some not. However, there are enough significant falsehoods to damage his credibility, and in the process damage the credibility of the ADL and the Jewish community in general. Mamdani and other pro-Arab activists can now claim that Jewish leaders are lying to silence protests of Israeli actions.
With the familiar turmoil that imperils American Jews, Greenblatt’s baseless charges can only worsen current conditions for us.
The ADL is probably the most effective Jewish advocacy organization in the nation, having been founded more than a century ago. However, it has blundered at times in recent years and is subject to criticisms by mostly right-leaning Jews.
I had a disappointing personal experience with the ADL, which avoided involvement – at least publicly – with a complaint I submitted to respond to a senior manager at a city agency who posted illustrations comparing Israel to the Ku Klux Klan.
It is frustrating that Mamdani holds the strategic high ground in the mayoral election. With his views on Israel, he cannot be trusted to be fair to the Jewish community. Harsh critics of Israel automatically blame American Jews for the starvation and civilian deaths in Gaza.
Even if Mamdani becomes New York’s next mayor, it is possible to confront him whenever he does something questionable involving the city’s Jews. However, critics like Greenblatt must rely on the truth rather than muddle a given issue with clumsy misrepresentations.
To echo what Jack Webb’s Dragnet character Detective Sgt. Joe Friday actually said, “All we want are the facts.”
*
Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist
I’m very happy to read this, as I’ve been bewildered and disappointed by Greenblatt’s leadership. Between his baseless (and easily disproven) attacks against the mayoral candidate NY democrats overwhelmingly favor and his dismissal of Elon Musk’s Nazi salute, he has brought politics into what should be an organization that represents the interests of all Jews.