The president of the controversial Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned Vice President Kamala Harris, her presidential campaign, and the White House for failing to address antisemitism allegedly hurled toward Governor Josh Shapiro, who was on the short-list to be her vice presidential running mate, but was eventually passed over in favor of Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told the New York Post on Saturday it was “shameful” for President Joe Biden, Harris nor her campaign to fail to address the “antisemitic slander campaign against Governor Shapiro.”
“No one from the White House called out the antisemitic slander campaign against Governor Shapiro,” Greenblatt told the outlet. “No one from the campaign called out the antisemitic smear campaign against Governor Shapiro. No one from the DNC called out the antisemitic smear campaign against Governor Shapiro.”
Greenblatt’s remarks come after Republicans accused the Harris campaign and Democrats of choosing Walz over Shapiro due to his Jewish religion.
“It’s hard to imagine that Josh’s strong stand on Israel, his Jewish background didn’t somehow factor into the decision,” said Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dave McCormick after Walz was selected.
The sentiments were later shared to The Pennsylvania Daily Star by Republican House nominee Alfe Goodwin, who suggested Harris and her advisors likely thought Muslims in Michigan would never vote for a ticket including a Jewish vice presidential candidate.
“With Governor Shapiro, because he is pro-Israel,” Goodwin told The Daily Star, “forget Michigan, right? [Harris] knew that she could forget Michigan with Shapiro. It just wasn’t going to happen.”
The period after Shapiro was announced as a candidate to run with Harris also featured opposition from multiple Muslim groups, including a Michigan-based organization that was already critical of the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel, which called Shapiro an unacceptable candidate.
While Shapiro said antisemitism “played absolutely no role” in his conversations with Harris prior to her decision to pass him over in remarks made to German-owned Politico last month, he acknowledged people have told him they feel targeted by increasing antisemitism in the country.
“When someone tells you that they want to be proud of their faith and they feel like they can’t be that’s upsetting,” Shapiro told the outlet.
The criticism by Greenblatt toward the White House and Harris campaign mark a departure from the organization’s past focus on conservatives, including the Libs of TikTok social media account, which Elon Musk revealed the ADL demanded be shut down on the social media platform now known as X.
Originally founded to protect Jewish people from defamation, the ADL has more recently engaged in progressive causes, and in 2020 and 2022 created new definitions of racism as part of its advocacy.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kamala Harris” by Dept of Defense and “Gov. Josh Shapiro” is by Gov. Tom Wolfe.
