The Anti-Defamation League of the Racial State: A Book Talk Featuring Emmaia Gelman
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) once sought to portray itself as a defender of civil rights aligned with movements for racial justice in the United States. In this groundbreaking study, Emmaia Gelman exposes the ADL’s alliance with American white supremacy and western empire and its historic investment in Cold War anticommunism. Her definitive account shows how the ADL as a Zionist organization has advanced and supported pro-state policing, a hate-crimes framework that obscures racialized structures of power, and a “War on Terror” that has stoked anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia.
“The ADL was born of the belief that the best protection from antisemitism was admission into the white racial state and waging a vigorous defense of capitalism, individual rights, and the West against communists and barbarians. And it has never looked back.” –Robin D. G. Kelley
Admission Information: Free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged but not required.
To RSVP, scan the QR code on the flyer or click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScEzKrG59SQymthd0TDZueWpV9mRdQGw9JOzYE7KEjLpT9jPg/viewform.
Note: This event is part of a California tour. To see more, visit crjucsc.com/events.
Date: April 28, 2026 at 4:00pm
Location: Social Sciences Building Room 554
Author Bio: Emmaia Gelman is the founding Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. She has taught social and cultural analysis at NYU and social sciences at Sarah Lawrence College. Her writing appears in Jewish Currents, Boston Review, The Forward, and elsewhere.
General Sponsors: the Center for Racial Justice, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, the Ethnic Studies Council at the University of California, and UC Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
Campus Sponsors: Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies, Asian American Research Center, Center for Race and Gender, Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Islamophobia Studies Journal, and Palestinian & Arab Studies