ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says antisemitism crackdown ‘long overdue’

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said efforts by the federal government to address the “catastrophe” of antisemitism plaguing college campuses are “long overdue” but warned that the Trump administration risks overreach.

“Antisemitism is a crisis, it’s a catastrophe that has not gotten nearly enough attention from the very institutions where it’s happening. For too long [colleges and universities] have failed to deal with this issue in a strategic and systematic way,” Greenblatt told CNN “Inside Politics” host Dana Bash Tuesday.

The ADL issued a report Tuesday that found that antisemitic incidents in the United States were at their highest since they began keeping track in 1979. The report found that there were 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024, up 5% from the previous year. 

Greenblatt attributed the rise to the trend of increasing antisemitism following Hamas’ barbaric Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in 2023. The report found 196 assaults, 2,606 incidents of vandalism, and 6,552 incidents of harassment against Jews in 2024. It was the fourth year in a row where antisemitic incidents in the United States broke the previous years’ records.

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American universities, particularly Ivy League schools, have become a flashpoint in the nationwide crisis of antisemitism following the Oct. 7 attacks. Jewish students have reported being the targets of harassment, academic discrimination and violence by mobs of students and sometimes faculty who have lashed out against the Jewish state and its supporters. 

The Trump administration has threatened to withhold funds from Columbia, Harvard and other schools unless they agree to address antisemitism on their campuses. Harvard refused the White House’s demands that the school change its academic programs and disciplinary practices to address antisemitism and viewpoint discrimination, saying they jeopardized their academic independence, and filed suit against the Trump administration on Monday. 

“The federal government, which is pumping billions of dollars into higher education, has the right to expect some degree of accountability from them… and that is long overdue,” Greenblatt said. 

The ADL boss warned, however, that the Trump administration’s aggressive response to campus antisemitism risks doing significant damage to America’s higher education system, which he says fuels innovation and is the “envy of the world.” 

Greenblatt said the federal government could target “the root causes of antisemitism” with “specific, strategic measures” that would not put the entire higher education system at risk. 

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Greenblatt also had words of caution for the administration’s drive to deport foreign students engaged in what they allege are antisemitic activities on college campuses.

 Former Columbia University grad student Mahmoud Khalil was cleared for deportation in April after a federal immigration judge ruled that the State Department met the burden of proof to remove him. Khalil, 30, had served as the spokesman for the anti-Israel tent encampment at Columbia, which saw reports of antisemitic violence and hate speech. 

Greenblatt cautioned that the federal government needs to be clear about what conduct the targets for deportation engaged in that warranted the action. 

However, Greenblatt pushed back when Bash asked what his organization would do to pressure the White House to grant due process to these alleged anti-Israel demonstrators. 

“We’re not public defenders for some of these Hamasniks on college campuses, and I don’t want to be,” Greenblatt said.