MAGA & the FBI Break Up with the ADL

and scholar Emmaia Gelman about the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), including the history and current activities of the ADL and the ADL's approach to advocacy for Palestinian rights and criticism of the state of Israel. They also discuss the ADL's relationship with the U.S. government, including including the ADL surveilling Americans and FBI Director Kash Patel's recent decision to suspend the ADL's longstanding partnership with the ADL. Mari Cohen is an associate editor at Jewish Currents, a.magazine committed to the rich tradition of thought, activism, and culture of the Jewish left, where she reports, edits, and contributes to shaping the magazine's editorial direction. See Mari's reporting on the ADL in Jewish Currents: "Top Executive Leaves ADL Over CEO’s Praise of Elon Musk," January 2024 (with Alex Kane); "The ADL’s Antisemitism Findings, Explained," April 2023; "ADL Staffers Dissented After CEO Compared Palestinian Rights Groups to Right-Wing Extremists, Leaked Audio Reveals," March 2023 (with Alex Kane); "The ADL Doubles Down on Opposing the Anti-Zionist Left," May 2022 (with Isaac Scher); "The Numbers Game," April 2022. Emmaia Gelman is the founding Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, which examines the political and ideological work of Zionist institutions beyond their direct advocacy for Israel. Her research and writing investigate the history of ideas about race, queerness, safety, and rights, and their production as political levers in the realm of hate crimes policy, surveillance, anti-terror measures, and war. Her teaching has spanned NYU, Sarah Lawrence College, freedom schools, encampments, and many other community spaces. Emmaia is at work on a critical history of the Anti-Defamation League (1913-1990) as a Cold War neoconservative institution, as well as an edited volume of social justice movement writings and academic research on resistance to the ADL. She is the co-chair of the American Studies Association Caucus on Academic and Community Activism, and a longtime activist in New York City. See these publications by Emmaia Gelman: "It’s Time to Break With the ADL as a Source for News and Research on Extremism," Truthout December 2023; "The Anti-Democratic Origins of the ADL and AJC," Jewish Currents March 2021; "The Anti-Defamation League Is Not What It Seems," Boston Review May 2019. Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer born in Gaza and a 2025 Fellow at FMEP. He is an advisory board member of the US Campaign for Palestinian rights, co-editor of After Zionism (Saqi Books) and is currently writing a book about Palestine. He also currently serves on the board of the Independence Media Foundation. His work has been published in The Guardian, The London Review of Books, The Nation, and elsewhere. He earned a BA at the University of Pennsylvania and an MPP at Harvard University. Original music by Jalal Yaquoub.