ADL Chief Who
Smeared Steve Bannon Directed Project at Soros-Funded Institute
by Aaron Klein 20 Nov 2016
TEL AVIV – Jonathan
Greenblatt, the National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), previously directed an initiative
at a George Soros-financed, far-left
institute, and he worked for the Obama
administration just prior to joining the ADL.
Greenblatt last week stirred controversy by baselessly
smearing Steve Bannon for associations with anti-Semites. Those charges
collapsed after Jewish leaders and Breitbart employees described Bannon as
staunchly pro-Israel and a fighter of anti-Semitism, with the ADL itself conceding
on Thursday that it is “not aware of any anti-Semitic statements made by Bannon
himself.”
Bannon, Breitbart’s former executive chairman, was named
by President-elect Donald Trump last week as chief strategist of the
new White House administration.
Greenblatt in November 2014 was appointed head of the
ADL, coming straight from the
Obama administration, where he served as Director of the
White House Office
of Social Innovation and Civic Participation.
Greenblatt’s official ADL bio shows little
documented experience in combating anti-Semitism.
Greenblatt was an ADL intern while a graduate student at Tufts
University, but the Forward newspaper reported that
his “professional life took him to other directions.”
Continued the paper:
He managed real estate and later co-founded a socially
conscience business venture, Ethos Brands, which sold bottled water while
donating part of the profits to clean water programs. The company was later
sold to Starbucks
and Greenblatt became a vice president of the giant coffee shop conglomerate.
He later served as head of GOOD media company and founded the not-for-profit
All for Good, an Internet platform connecting volunteers with organizations
seeking help. Greenblatt also taught social entrepreneurship at UCLA.
Soros ties
Until his appointment as head of Obama’s Office of
Social Innovation and Civic Participation, Greenblatt served
as Director of the Impact Economy Initiative at the George Soros-funded Aspen
Institute.
Curiously, that role is not mentioned in Greenblatt’s ADL
bio, which simply
states that he is “a member of the 2006 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the
Aspen Institute.” The Fellowship describes itself as seeking to “develop
the next generation of community-spirited leaders, providing them with the
tools necessary to meet the challenges of business and civic leadership in the
21st century.”
Besides funding from Soros, Aspen has hosted Soros on
numerous occasions, including one reportedly clandestine summit aimed at
devising a strategy to defeat George W. Bush in the 2004 election.
The Aspen Institute’s official mission statement is
nondescript. It says the organization seeks to:
Spark intellectual inquiry and exchange, connecting new
concepts to timeless values.
Create a diverse worldwide community of leaders committed
to the greater good.
Provide a nonpartisan forum for reaching solutions on
vital public policy issues.
Like Aspen’s generalized mission statement, Greenblatt
described what he meant by “Impact Economy,” the namesake of the Aspen division
that he directed, in general terms. He stated in a 2011 interview
that “Impact Economy” focuses on “national competitiveness, social impact and environmental
benefit… a phenomenon that encompasses a wide range of sectors including
community enterprises and clean tech as well as new fields such as affordable
living and ethical brands.”
Discover the Networks reports
on Aspen’s mission thusly:
Encompassing a broad range of issues, many of AI’s
policy-work programs are rooted in the belief that the United States is a
nation whose history amounts largely to an unbroken narrative of injustice;
that government intervention frequently represents the best remedy for social
and economic problems; and that America’s deep-seated “structural racism,”
while “harder to see than its previous incarnations,” is just as likely as its
forerunner to “perpetuate racial group inequity.”
Indeed, the term “structural racism” is a major theme on
Aspen’s website. And
it has been the theme of numerous
Aspen publications and events. A closer look may help explain Greenblatt’s
institutional background at Aspen as it relates to his perspective on issues of
racism.
Aspen defines
“structural racism,” which it contends continues to impact the U.S., as:
A system in which public policies, institutional
practices, cultural representations, and other norms work in various,
often reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequity. It identifies
dimensions of our history and culture that have allowed privileges
associated with “whiteness” and disadvantages associated with “color” to endure
and adapt over time. Structural racism is not something that a few people
or institutions choose to practice. Instead it has been a feature of the
social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.
An Aspen blog post regarding the Institute’s “Roundtable
on Community Change” contends:
From both historical and contemporary standpoints, whites
have possessed advantages in all of the principal opportunity domains for a
long time, including education, employment, housing, health care, political
representation, and media influence. It has accumulated into an understanding
among whites (and perhaps others) that “whiteness is the ‘default setting’ for
race in America” and that it is the “assumed color” of our nation.
Aspen’s roundtable suggested the use of a “structural
racism lens” to understand the following concepts:
The racial legacy of our past.
How racism persists in our national policies,
institutional practices, and cultural representations.
How racism is transmitted and either amplified or
mitigated through public, private, and community institutions.
How individuals internalize and respond to racialized
structures.
The roundtable concluded it is “important to challenge
the American ideals of equal opportunity and meritocracy by considering the
following”:
The notion of the “fairness of the system.”
Consider where we, as individuals, fit into and help
sustain structural racism, especially in the media and popular culture.
Reflect on the role that social service, community
development, or philanthropic organizations play in the maintenance of racial
inequity.
Soros’s Open Society Foundations has provided numerous
grants
to the Aspen
Institute totaling at least
$515,000.
In August 2004, Soros reportedly
attended “a clandestine summit meeting” that “took place at the Aspen
Institute, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. The participants, all Democrats, were
sworn to secrecy” and, according to the New Yorker, included Soros and
four other billionaires who “shared a common goal: to use their fortunes to
engineer the defeat of President George W. Bush in the 2004 election.”
In 2006, National Review Online reported:
Soros, through his Open Society Institute, provides
support for the Aspen Institute, which runs various activities in support of
its stated mission of “foster[ing] enlightened leadership and open-minded
dialogue.” Among these activities are its “Justice and Society Seminars,” which
often have federal judges as participants. The Aspen Institute has waived the
steep seminar fee (currently up to $6,950) for participating federal judges,
and also has covered their expenses for travel, lodging, and meals.
Soros himself spoke at a July 2004 Aspen event titled
“America’s Role in the Fight Against Global Poverty.”
In August 2006, Aspen hosted
Soros again for a speech about his book released that year, titled, The Age
of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror.
Jim Spiegelman, Aspen’s director of communications,
formerly served as “special assistant” to Soros, Spiegelman’s Aspen bio notes.
Soros-funded J Street
Greenblatt, meanwhile, stirred controversy for remarks he
made about Israel
at a speech earlier this year to J Street, the Soros-financed
liberal Middle East activist organization.
J Street has been critical
of Israeli anti-terror operations, considers Israeli
settlements an “obstacle to peace,” and strongly supported the Iran nuclear
deal labeled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a threat
to Israel’s very survival.
The pro-Israel Zionist Organization of America compiled
some of Greenblatt’s most controversial statements at the J Street speech
alongside ZOA’s “concerns” about those statements.
ZOA says Greenblatt “wrongly blamed ‘both sides’ for acts
that are the sole responsibility of Palestinian Arabs and their leaders.”
This was a response to Greenblatt’s statements: “We
must be on guard for those… who place blame on one side instead of putting forward
solutions that acknowledge the role and responsibility of both sides” and “both
sides need more investment and less intifada, more business and less boycott,
more help and less hate.”
ZOA contended that Greenblatt “falsely accused fellow
Jews of ‘Islamophobia’ and ‘marginalizing Palestinians’ and claimed that the
‘Palestinian narrative’ is ‘legitimate.’”
Greenblatt stated at the J Street dinner: “We should not
stand idly by when those in our community exhibit Islamophobia or deny the
rights of the marginalized, Palestinian or otherwise. So, when it comes to
striving for a two state solution, it’s critical for two parties to meet
halfway. Both sides need to acknowledge the legitimacy of the other’s
narrative. We need equal pressure for equality.”
The ZOA noted that the “Palestinian narrative” consists
of the “false claim that Jews living on Jewish land are ‘occupiers’ that
‘stole’ their own land from ‘Palestinian’ Arabs. The ‘Palestinian
narrative’ also falsely claims that Jerusalem and the Temple Mount are Islamic
holy places that Jews are ‘defiling,’ and that Jews have no connection to
Jerusalem.”
The ZOA argued Greenblatt “falsely implied that Israel
does not protect Arab citizens’ rights today, and instead portrayed protecting
Arab citizens’ rights as a future aspiration for which activists must fight.”
Greenblatt stated: “We want to see Israel as a democratic
country that acknowledges [sic] and protects [sic] the rights of all
its citizens, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, Sabra and immigrant, Jew and Arab.”
The ZOA further protested:
Israel in fact already protects the rights of all its
citizens, including its Arab citizens. Israeli Arabs vote in Israeli
elections; serve as doctors, lawyers and top judges in Israel; and even sit as
members of the Israeli Knesset, despite supporting Israel’s enemies. Israeli
Arab MK’s have visited and comforted families of Arab terrorists who murdered
Jews, joined the IHH flotilla to break the Israeli blockade of arms
shipments to Hamas, urged Islamist terrorist group Hezbollah leader Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah to fight Israel, and supported the kidnapping of Israeli
soldiers.
The ZOA wrote that Greenblatt “encouraged criticism of
Israel as to why there is no ‘two–state solution’” whole ignoring that the
Palestinians rejected offers of a state in 1937, 1947, 2000, and 2008, and have
refused to even come to the bargaining table in recent years.
The ZOA was referring to Greenblatt’s statement:
“Looking back [after the hopes of Oslo], some disagree about what happened or
how we get to that two-state solution. We can – and should – have a robust
debate. We can criticize and argue with our brothers and sisters in Israel, and
with their government. I know I do. I know ADL does.” Greenblatt also said: “We
can seek to support Palestinian self-determination.”
Jerusalem Post
columnist and veteran international Jewish leader Isi Leibler protested
not only Greenblatt’s statements on Israel, but the ADL chief’s attendance at a
J Street event, which Leibler feared would provide legitimacy to the
controversial organization.
The negative impact of Greenblatt’s overtures to J Street should not be underestimated. This is a crucial
period in Israel-US relations. For one of the wealthiest Jewish establishment
bodies to shower praise on an organization with a consistent track record of
undermining and demonizing Israel and to call for its inclusion in the “big
tent” will surely serve to encourage Obama to exert pressure against Israel in
the last months of his tenure.
J Street
Morton H. Halperin
is the chairman for J Street, a senior
adviser for the
Open Society Foundations,
a member of the Markle Task Force on
National Security in the Information Age, and a director at the ONE Campaign.
Note: Victor A. Kovner
is a director at J Street, and was a
director at the American Constitution
Society.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the American Constitution Society, and the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank).
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a friend of Michael Douglas, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace (think tank).
Eric H. Holder Jr.
was a board member for the American
Constitution Society, the attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice for the Barack Obama administration, and is a member of the Markle Task Force on National Security in
the Information Age.
Faith Elizabeth
Gay is a board of adviser’s member for the American Constitution Society, and was an attorney at Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is the president for the Barack
Obama administration.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP,
an advocate for the ONE Campaign,
and is the first lady for the Barack
Obama administration.
WaterPartners
International is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, and a merged organization with Water.org.
H2O Africa
Foundation is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, a merged organization with Water.org,
and Matt Damon is the co-founder.
Matt
Damon is the co-founder of the H2O
Africa Foundation, and was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Jonathan
Greenblatt was a director at Water.org,
a director at the Office of Social
Innovation and Civic Participation, a fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is the director & CEO for the
Anti-Defamation League.
Office
of Social Innovation and Civic Participation is a White House office for the
Barack Obama administration.
Sonal
Shah was a director at the Office of
Social Innovation and Civic Participation, and a fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
R. Eden Martin is
counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Newton N. Minow
is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP,
and a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago.
Commercial Club of Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past
Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Mellody L. Hobson
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a director at the Starbucks Corporation.
James S.
Crown is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and the vice
chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Lester Crown
is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and was a lifetime
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Aspen Institute
(think tank) was a funder for the Markle
Foundation.
Markle
Task Force on National Security in the Information Age is a
national-security project for the Markle
Foundation.
Margaret A.
Hamburg is a member of the Markle
Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, David A. Hamburg’s daughter, and was a
VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Ted
Turner is a co-chairman for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank), and the founder of CNN.
Walter Isaacson
was the chairman & CEO for CNN, is
a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation,
and the president of the Aspen Institute
(think tank).
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Wolf Blitzer is an
anchor CNN, and was a correspondent
for the Jerusalem Post.
Robert Legvold
was a trustee at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank),
and a trustee emeritus at Tufts
University.
Jessica Tuchman Mathews is a director at the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank),
was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think
tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg (think
tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United States in war)
Michael Douglas is
a director at the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), and a friend of George Soros.
Hollywood's Michael
Douglas 'Finds Judaism, Faces anti-Semitism'
Hollywood star speaks out in
op-ed about his growing connection to his father's faith, and his son's brush
with Jew hatred.
Contact Editor
Ari Yashar, 16/03/15 09:09
David A. Hamburg
is an adviser for the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), Margaret A.
Hamburg’s father, and the president emeritus for the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank), and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Newton N. Minow
is an honorary trustee at the Carnegie
Corporation of New York, a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is the president for the Barack
Obama administration.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP,
an advocate for the ONE Campaign,
and is the first lady for the Barack
Obama administration.
WaterPartners
International is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, and a merged organization with Water.org.
H2O Africa
Foundation is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, a merged organization with Water.org,
and Matt Damon is the co-founder.
Matt
Damon is the co-founder of the H2O
Africa Foundation, and was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Jonathan
Greenblatt was a director at Water.org,
a director at the Office of Social
Innovation and Civic Participation, a fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is the director & CEO for the
Anti-Defamation League.
Carnegie
Corporation of New York was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank), the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think tank), and the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
Aspen Institute
(think tank) was a funder for the Markle
Foundation.
Markle
Task Force on National Security in the Information Age is a
national-security project for the Markle
Foundation.
Margaret A.
Hamburg is a member of the Markle
Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, David A. Hamburg’s daughter, and was a
VP for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
(think tank).
Morton H. Halperin
is a member of the Markle Task Force on
National Security in the Information Age, a senior adviser for the Open Society Foundations, a director at
the ONE Campaign, and the chairman
for J Street.
Michael R. Bloomberg
was an advocate for the ONE Campaign,
and is the founder of the Bloomberg
Family Foundation.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was
a funder for the Aspen Institute (think
tank).
Walter Isaacson is
a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation,
the president of the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and was the chairman & CEO for CNN.
Wolf Blitzer is an
anchor CNN, and was a correspondent
for the Jerusalem Post.
Saul Singer is an editorial
page editor for the Jerusalem Post,
and married to Wendy Senor Singer.
Wendy Senor
Singer is married to Saul Singer,
and was the head of Jerusalem office for AIPAC.
AIPAC
is the U.S.-based lobby group for Israel.
American
Israel Education Foundation is the charitable arm for AIPAC.
Pritzker
Family Foundation was a funder for the American
Israel Education Foundation.
J.B.
Pritzker is the president of the Pritzker
Family Foundation, Donald Pritzker’s
son, the campaign chairman for the Illinois
Holocaust Museum, and a member of the Commercial
Club of Chicago.
Donald Pritzker
was J.B. Pritzker & Penny S. Pritzker’s father.
Penny S. Pritzker
is Donald Pritzker’s daughter, a
member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, the secretary at the U.S.
Department of Commerce for the Barack Obama administration, was the national finance chair, fundraiser
for the 2008 Barack Obama presidential
campaign, a co-chair for the 2009
Barack Obama inaugural committee, a fundraiser, national co-chair for the 2012 Barack Obama presidential campaign,
a contributor for the 2013 Barack Obama
inaugural committee, the host for the Barack
Obama fund-raising dinner, 7/2/2008, and Craig M. Robinson’s basketball coach for the children's team.
Noteworthy quote:
Without Penny Pritzker, it is unlikely that Barack Obama ever would have been elected to the United States Senate or the presidency.
- New York Times, July 15, 2012
Without Penny Pritzker, it is unlikely that Barack Obama ever would have been elected to the United States Senate or the presidency.
- New York Times, July 15, 2012
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, and is the president for the Barack
Obama administration.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP,
an advocate for the ONE Campaign, is
Craig M. Robinson’s sister, the
first lady for the Barack Obama
administration.
WaterPartners
International is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, and a merged organization with Water.org.
H2O Africa
Foundation is a partner with the ONE
Campaign, a merged organization with Water.org,
and Matt Damon is the co-founder.
Matt
Damon is the co-founder of the H2O
Africa Foundation, and was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Jonathan
Greenblatt was a director at Water.org,
a director at the Office of Social
Innovation and Civic Participation, a fellow at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is the director & CEO for the
Anti-Defamation League.
Bloomberg
Family Foundation was a funder for the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Michael R. Bloomberg
is the founder of the Bloomberg Family
Foundation, and was an advocate for the ONE Campaign.
Walter Isaacson is
a director at the Bloomberg Family Foundation,
the president of the Aspen Institute
(think tank), and was the chairman & CEO for CNN.
Wolf Blitzer is an
anchor CNN, and was a correspondent
for the Jerusalem Post.
Saul Singer is an editorial
page editor for the Jerusalem Post,
and married to Wendy Senor Singer.
Wendy Senor
Singer is married to Saul Singer,
and was the head of Jerusalem office for AIPAC.
AIPAC
is the U.S.-based lobby group for Israel.
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