It Could Happen Here

August 1, 2021

When he became head of the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, Greenblatt--who served as special assistant to President Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation--upped the league's efforts to battle both anti-Semitism and hatred of all kinds. New initiatives include the Center on Extremism, which monitors extremist behavior across the ideological spectrum. Drawing on these initiatives and the league's long-standing research, Greenblatt sees the possibility of genocide in America's future.

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November 8, 2021
In this impassioned yet uneven account, Anti-Defamation League CEO Greenblatt delivers a troubling compendium of recent incidents of hate and intolerance and offers practical advice on how to counteract such dangers. Contending that the normalization of racial slurs, negative stereotypes, and cruel teasing can foster violence by dehumanizing victims, Greenblatt urges readers to call out problematic speech and behavior even when it seems innocuous. He offers suggestions for how to counter hate and promote tolerance and humanitarian values in various contexts, including family, work, schools, and faith groups, though his suggestion that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are inseparable goes too far. He also has a tendency to argue against straw men, as when he claims that “commentators on the left soften their calls to destroy the Jewish state by... advocating for justice for the Palestinian people,” and that some proponents of critical race theory are intent on “denying individuals any degree of agency and negating the nuances that shape communities over time.” Though Greenblatt’s warnings about the dangers of normalizing bigotry are sound, he lets his political agenda get in the way of his message. Progressives, in particular, will be unconvinced.

December 1, 2021
The CEO of the Anti-Defamation League suggests ways to respond to bigotry toward marginalized communities. Greenblatt champions the ADL's work and causes in a "handbook against hate" that often reads like a promotional vehicle for the civil rights organization. In addition to adapting previously published ADL materials, he writes, "I've also borrowed text freely from ADL without attribution." This approach works well when he is describing unique tools or resources developed by the ADL, such as its "Pyramid of Hate," which posits that bigotry occurs in five progressively worse stages that can overlap: "biased attitudes," "acts of bias," "systemic discrimination," "bias-motivated violence," and "genocide." But Greenblatt's free hand with warmed-over text and ideas can lead to mind-numbing clich�s and corporate jargon in chapters intended to offer practical tips on promoting tolerance or overcoming hate in a range of everyday situations: at work, at home, on social media, in communities or religious groups, and elsewhere. For example, the author writes that companies seeking to respond responsibly to hate "would do well to implement initiatives consistent with their core competencies and operational design." Such tedious passages clash with Greenblatt's biting comments on topics such as the Palestinian cause or the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement's "anti-normalization" stance, which "essentially criminalizes Zionism." The author's discussions of the discrimination faced by Jews and others such as Black or transgender people can also elide differences in their lived experiences. More persuasive and enlightening accounts of the spread of hate--and worthy responses to it--have recently appeared in G�raldine Schwarz's Those Who Forget and Mark Oppenheimer's Squirrel Hill. Either book would make a better introduction to the alarming resurgence of antisemitism and other forms of bigotry in the U.S. and elsewhere. Readers could also return to Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy. An uninspired handbook on hate from the leader of a prominent civil rights organization.

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