What will ADL’s priorities be in post-Foxman era?

What message is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sending to the Jewish community through its recent selection of White House aide and social entrepreneur Jonathan Greenblatt to succeed longtime National Director Abraham Foxman? 

While some are praising ADL for thinking outside the box with its hire and trying to appeal to a younger demographic, others are concerned that Greenblatt is too visibly partisan and that his past experience may signal ADL’s de-emphasis of the fight against anti-Semitism in favor of civil rights work.

The 74-year-old Foxman, will retire from ADL, one of the highest-profile American Jewish organizations, in July 2015. As ADL’s national director since 1987, he has become almost an institution unto himself and is considered by some to be a de facto spokesman for the Jewish people.

“When you [as an organization] are coming off of a period that has been so dominated by a leader, the history is that the next person often becomes kind of a human sacrifice,” said Ed Rettig, a consultant for Jewish organizations and former director of the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office.

ADL’s mission statement says that it “fights anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defends democratic ideals, and protects civil rights for all.” At a time when global anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism (and the convergence of the two) is on the upswing, particularly in Europe, some Jews have criticized ADL for taking too many detours into alternate issues and fear that Greenblatt’s lack of experience in the area of anti-Semitism will exacerbate the trend.

Greenblatt, a 43-year-old grandson of a Holocaust survivor, currently serves in the Obama administration as Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation in the Domestic Policy Council. He also founded the Impact Economy Initiative at the Aspen Institute think tank and co-founded the bottled water producer Ethos Brands, which donated to global clean water programs and was eventually acquired by the Starbucks Coffee Company.