The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has long been regarded as a pillar of civil rights advocacy. However, a growing chorus of activists is challenging this perception, highlighting the organization’s contentious history and its alignment with conservative and state interests.
In 2026, the Drop the ADL movement brought to light the ADL’s history of suppressing Palestinian rights, surveilling activists, and infiltrating social justice movements. This critique is echoed in Emmaia Gelman’s recent book, The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State which provides a comprehensive examination of the ADL’s origins and its connection to Western Empire.
The ADL’s Founding and Early Politics
The ADL was established as an upper-class organization with a mission to defend the reputation of Central European Jews against the influx of Eastern European Jews, whom they viewed as less assimilated and more politically radical. Gelman explains that the ADL’s founding members were concerned about the potential for these new immigrants to activate white nationalism and challenge the state.
This conservatism was evident in the ADL’s response to the Nazi Holocaust. Rather than defending Jews in Europe against Nazi propaganda, the ADL denounced the idea that any Jews were communist, thereby leaving European Jews vulnerable to Nazi attacks. The ADL’s conservatism also manifested in its opposition to loosening U.S. immigration restrictions for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Europe.
The ADL’s Role in the Cold War and Beyond
During the Cold War, the ADL transitioned into an anti-communist organization, cooperating with the McCarthy witch hunts and right-wing newspapers. The ADL’s chief lawyer was a colleague of McCarthy’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, and anticommunist gossip columnist Walter Winchell. This anti-communist stance was framed as protecting democracy a narrative that has contributed to the confusion surrounding the ADL’s true allegiances.
The ADL’s history of repression and its alignment with conservative and state interests have raised serious questions about its role as a civil rights organization. As Gelman’s book reveals, the ADL’s actions have often been at odds with the interests of marginalized communities, raising important questions about its ongoing influence in U.S. politics.
