If They're Really So Good at This

 

ADL Seminar.  Lasted but a few minutes before I left.  Covid isolation has introduced me to opportunities not previously available.  Arguably atop the list has been free seminars via Zoom sponsored by top notch agencies who invite world class experts who will take questions even from a peasant like me.  These will hopefully continue once Covid becomes part of history.  The Anti-Defamation League, whose previous director I placed atop my most admired fellow Jews, stepped down, keeps a low profile so not to overshadow his successor who from my assessment can be easily overshadowed, has a legacy exceeding a hundred years of advocating against anti-Semitism in particular but other forms of ethnic animosity as well, or at least their public expression if not private thought.

Ethnically driven physical attacks and verbal assaults have expanded after a few decades of attempted brotherhood.  World War II gave genocide its deserved bad reputation, but we still had future slaughters in Cambodia, Rwanda, and what is left of Yugoslavia.  Anti-Semitism appeared in a different form in France and Germany as Islamic immigrants expressed their imprinted ideologies about twenty years ago but remained marginalized in America until more recently.  Unlike Europe, for every incident in America there has been an overwhelming public response condemning this activity but a more tacit response in the privacy of voting booths giving it an OK.  

Back to the seminar of short tenure.  Anti-Semitism has become more public in America and the ADL has in its mission  to resist it.  The form morphs to meet circumstances from denial of employment, university admission, or social club membership in my grandparent's time, a very visible lull in my parents' time, and now exploitation of easy public access of any view, no matter how ugly, by social media or other electronic global communication.  The ADL opted to focus on social media, where I must say, being something of a technologically deprived geezer, my own cyberspace niche really does not receive anti-Semitic provocations.  May be more prevalent to the younger folks whose subscriptions link them to campus events.  I do get some FB pseudoFriends posting some stuff rather unflattering to the Black population but more a byproduct of their political affiliation that has placed Jews IN and Blacks OUT.

Most Zoom panels sponsored by agencies invite experts of different backgrounds to give their presentations.  This one had only ADL staff, competent no doubt, but not diverse of mind.  And from the introduction they pitched the ADL's origins and legacy.  As they did this, the obvious question arose.  If they've become America's premier agency at combating Antisemitism, why do we have a resurgence on their watch?  Maybe they really aren't as good at this as they would like us to think.  

Medicine takes a parallel path.  The people in the pulmonary office's waiting rooms have more portable oxygen than patients in their primary doctors' waiting rooms.  The endocrinologist's patients have HbA1c of 10% a year into treatment.  Maybe experts address meltdowns better than we prevent having meltdowns.  I would think if the ADL were really an effective agency, over a hundred years their mission would have moved from combating overt antisemitism to ethnic hatreds not as well controlled or keeping residual anti-Semitism in the sewers with the manhole covers sealed in place.  But they really have not effectively addressed root causes or enduring remedies, leaving them to engage in skirmishes as they arise.  Probably have better ways to approach this ongoing challenge.