Tell your school board: Reject the ADL.

Your local school board

For decades, the ADL has surveilled and targeted social justice movements, including civil rights, anti-apartheid, immigrant, farmworker, queer, Palestinian rights, and labor movements.

The Guardian revealed last July that the ADL spied on progressive Black organizer, Tatjana Rebelle, keeping a file on their political activity and personal information. This news is just the latest installment in the ADL’s long history of spying on and repressing social justice activists and movements, particularly those led by marginalized communities.

We’ve long known that the ADL is not a civil rights organization, it only masquerades as one. In reality, it operates as a pro-Israel lobbying group, focused on co-opting and abusing accusations of antisemitism to smear critics of Israel as bigots.

As more and more people recognize that the ADL is not a neutral source for data on antisemitism or civil rights issues, the organization is rapidly losing its legitimacy. Just last month, Wikipedia editors voted that the ADL could not be trusted as a reliable source on issues of antisemitism or Israel’s war on Gaza, citing the organization’s persistent pro-Israel bias. Still, too many of our local school boards continue to partner with the ADL.

More than 24,000 teachers and about 2,000 K-12 schools use ADL resources for civil rights education — meaning that this bigoted and biased organization is presented to students in our schools as a credible source on the exact issues, racism and antisemitism, that the ADL is itself guilty of.

Our children deserve so much better than to learn from an organization that uses its power to harm individuals and movements working towards justice for all people.

Join us in taking action to ask our local school boards to end any partnerships with the ADL, and to replace any ADL-authored resources on antisemitism or racism. Here’s what you can do:

  • Read and sign the petition to local school boards, and share it with others in your community
  • Learn more about why the ADL is not an ally to social justice movements from our partners at #DropTheADL.
  • Use this resource sheet for more information on the ADL’s work to dangerously misdefine antisemitism and its history of Islamophobic, racist, anti-Palestinian advocacy.
  • If you are leading advocacy efforts in your area, when you are ready to present a petition to your local school board, contact digital@jvp.org. We will provide you with a formatted petition, including a list of signatories in your area.

To: Your local school board
From: [Your Name]

We the undersigned, as Jews and allied people of conscience, call on you to commit to not partnering with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), to terminate any partnerships that may currently exist, and to replace any ADL-authored resources on antisemitism or racism.

In June, Wikipedia editors voted that the ADL could not be trusted as a reliable source on issues of antisemitism or Israel's war on Gaza, citing the organization's persistent pro-Israel bias.

For years, the ADL has used its credibility as a civil rights organization to silence critics of the Israeli state, pushing a dangerous and false definition of antisemitism that would classify criticism of Israel as a hate crime.

The ADL also has a long history of surveilling activists and social justice movements.

Alternative, credible sources for educational materials can be found through local progressive organizations.

The “Curriculum on Antisemitism from a Framework of Collective Liberation” contains several sessions devoted to understanding and challenging antisemitism grounded in a deep commitment to justice and dignity for all people. Nationally, resources include the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium.
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More information on the ADL ​can be found at jvp.org/resource/adl-one-pager/