Rabbi Michael Learner, branded as
a "nazi" by Zionist extremists in the
U.S.
In his 1995 book Jews &
Blacks: Let the Healing Begin,
co-written with Cornel
West, Rabbi Learner said:
The ADL, like the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, has built its financial appeal to Jews on its ability to portray the Jewish people as surrounded by enemies who are on the verge of launching threatening anti-Semitic campaigns. It has a professional stake in exaggerating the dangers, and sometimes allows existing racial or political prejudices in the Jewish world to influence how it will portray the potential dangers. As a result, there are voices among American Jewish liberals who question the special emphasis that ADL has placed on Black anti-Semitism. But you have to understand this as part of a larger political pattern, because the ADL was also involved in denigrating people on the Left, including Jews on the Left, who critiqued Israeli policy. In the name of defending Jewish interests, these organizations often end up defending a particular politics within the Jewish world and imagining that anyone who does not agree with those politics is a threat to the Jews, including fellow Jews with whom they disagree. Their power is that they continue to attract Jewish donors and members who are fearful of the undoubtedly real threats that do still exist, and which ADL sometimes is able to document.
Lerner, Michael. West, Cornel. Jews
& Blacks: Let the Healing Begin. New
York: G. P. Putnam's & Son. 1995.
pp.135-136.
