The gathering was a cornucopia of hate speech, racism, antisemitism, and misogyny. With a rogue's gallery of speakers (including Steven Miller, a one-man horror show, and shanda to Jews everywhere), it was the kind of October surprise nobody had anticipated.
With Project 2025 serving as the agenda for a potential second Trump administration, it was an extremely inopportune moment for Greenblatt to choose to be "non-partisan" in his reaction.
Greenblatt, in his media appearances even before October 7, has been consistently called on to present comments on antisemitism and other discrimination in America. However, he almost always shifted the dialogue to conflating Zionism and any criticism of Israel to an equivalent of antisemitism.
Comments disparaging other Jewish organizations who have questioned the Israeli government's lack of concern over Palestinian human rights have added to the conflict within the American Jewish community. Greenblatt supported Elon Musk's move on X to ban language that Greenblatt considered offensive and anti-Israeli. Yet, in November 2023, Musk referenced an antisemitic statement as the "actual truth."
Moving into ten years of leadership at the helm of the ADL, Greenblatt is now being vociferously questioned about his weak response to the Trump rally. From a Biden administration official to Abe Foxman (the previous head of the ADL), Greenblatt is being challenged as to why he has chosen such a conciliatory path regarding Trump.
On Thursday, October 31, NYC4Kaplan, an Israeli-American activist group, took it a step further. They demonstrated in front of the ADL headquarters on Third Avenue in Manhattan, bringing the question directly to Greenblatt.
Gathering on the sidewalk, they held signs and called to the organization:
"ADL,
Listen to our plea,
Condemn Trump's statements,
For everyone to see."
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