JTA — The former top litigation volunteer at the Anti-Defamation League has made public his scorching resignation letter from the group, in the latest sign of Jewish discontent over the organization’s shifts during the second Trump administration.

Joe Berman, who chaired the ADL’s National Legal Affairs Committee from 2018 to 2022 and who volunteered in other capacities until this year, said in an interview he left because the venerated civil rights group had become a “useful idiot” for the Trump administration by failing to respond aggressively to antisemitism on the right.

“Whether intentionally or ignorantly, ADL is providing cover to people who intend great harm to our nation,” Berman said in his letter resigning from two national and one regional leadership bodies. Berman sent the letter in March and is making it public now for the first time through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Voicing a perspective that is common among liberal opponents of Trump, Berman argued that the Trump administration has used the pretext of alleged antisemitism to impose penalties on universities and arrest non-citizens.

“Jews and the fight against antisemitism are being cynically used to advance an authoritarian, anti-democratic agenda,” he wrote. “For ADL’s national leadership to not recognize these clear and present dangers is inexplicable.”

Berman added, ”Make no mistake: this will not end well, especially for Jewish Americans.”

In a response to Berman’s letter, an ADL spokesperson reiterated the argument that CEO Jonathan Greenblatt laid out in a recent op-ed: that during a time of dramatically increased antisemitism, shifting focus and resources away from other societal challenges is only appropriate.

“The shocking rise of antisemitic violence in recent years — from Pittsburgh to Poway, from Boulder to Washington, DC — has required us to intensify our focus on protecting the Jewish people,” the spokesperson said. “The Jewish community is facing an ‘oxygen mask moment.’ We do not have unlimited resources, and we must make choices about priorities. While we cheer on those working to protect civil rights for other groups, we are focusing our time, energy, and money on the fight against antisemitism.”

The ADL is the largest advocacy organization by far in the world dedicated to fighting antisemitism. Its statistics are widely cited, and its operations include not only advocacy and litigation but monitoring extremism and advancing research about the causes of antisemitism.

While it enjoys broad support in the Jewish community, the ADL has many critics on both the left and right. Berman’s broadside is the latest expression of unhappiness with the fundamental changes under Greenblatt, under whose leadership the organization’s focus has narrowed to just fighting antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

Among other shifts roiling Berman and other onetime supporters of the group are the shuttering this year of a profitable anti-bigotry training program, “World of Difference,” the scrubbing from its websites of references to its civil rights advocacy, and the reshaping of its storied civil rights litigation unit into one targeting only antisemitism. They say the organization has given up its alliances with........

© The Times of Israel