Fiasco: Anti-Defamation League in Hot Water After Botched Attempt To Partner With Anti-Semite Kyrie Irving

NBA star Kyrie Irving left the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with egg on its face after the group pledged to partner with Irving and his team, the Brooklyn Nets, to steer a $1 million donation to Jewish organizations following Irving promotion of an anti-Semitic documentary. Then, on Thursday, Irving said that — actually — he had nothing to apologize for.

Now, the ADL is backtracking, with CEO Jonathan Greenblatt pledging not to take any money from Irving but saying he is nonetheless willing to “engage in a process of healing and learning” with the unapologetic anti-Semite.

“Although we will not accept any funds from him, if Kyrie is open to direct dialogue to repair the harm that he has caused and to engage in a process of healing and learning in a sincere manner, [ADL] is open to engaging with him,” Greenblatt said. “Time and action will tell.”

Irving ignited a media firestorm last week by promoting a book and movie that denies the Holocaust occurred and portrays Jewish people as a nefarious bogeyman. Irving issued a statement admitting responsibility for the “negative impact” of his post but ultimately doubled down this week, saying during a Thursday press conference, “I cannot be anti-Semitic.”

The brouhaha over Irving’s anti-Semitic beliefs is a blow to one of America’s oldest and most respected Jewish institutions. The ADL, under the leadership of former Obama administration official Greenblatt, has been plagued by accusations it provides cover to Democrats while only exerting pressure on conservative voices it sees as promoting anti-Semitic views. In recent years, the ADL has charged a litany of conservative groups with promoting anti-Semitism while ignoring similar instances on the left, prompting some in the Jewish community to call it an “echo chamber of left-wing Democratic politics.” The ADL also has made overtures to the anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter movement despite its support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, as well as the far-left anti-Israel group J Street.

“This is another unfortunate misstep for an ADL that seems to have placed partisanship and even fundraising ahead of fighting antisemitism,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, America’s largest rabbinic public policy group, told the Washington Free Beacon. “After curating a false narrative tying anti-Semitism to white supremacy above all else, it rushed to take a donation from Irving instead of the real consequences that, as ESPN sportscasters have pointed out, the