The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond

Описание: Scholars for Justice and Human Rights in Professional Associations hosted this webinar — "The Anti-Defamation League’s Attacks on Professional Associations: What to Know and How to Respond" — on February 9, 2026. The focus of the session was the Anti-Defamation League's November 2025 report falsely alleging that over a dozen professional academic associations were riddled with antisemitism, based on interviews with a small number of pro-Israel voices inside these associations. Panelists discussed how we should understand the ADL today — an organization that once claimed to serve civil rights but is now partnering directly with the white nationalist right — and how we can configure resistance.

The panelists included Emmaia Gelman, Amira Jarmakani, Isaac Kamola, and Lara Deeb, with commentary from Amy Hagopian and Roy Eidelson of SJHRPA.

*Emmaia Gelman is director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, co-chair of the American Studies Association Academic and Community Activism Caucus, and author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State (forthcoming from the University of California Press).

*Amira Jarmakani is a professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and affiliated faculty with the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies and LGBTQ+ studies at San Diego State University. She is a core member of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism and a Member of the Palestinian Feminist Collective.

*Isaac Kamola is a professor of Political Science at Trinity College. He currently directs the American Association of University Professors’(AAUP) Center for the Defense of Academic Freedom, which is committed to the pursuit of knowledge free from intimidation and retaliation.

*Lara Deeb is a professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies at Scripps College. She co-chairs the Middle East Studies Association’s Task Force on Civil and Human Rights. The task force tracks the changing political and legal context as it impacts scholars of the Middle East and produces resources to support faculty and students.

*Amy Hagopian is a professor emeritus in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington. She has been a leader in the American Public Health Association for over two decades, recently serving as chair of the editorial board of the Association’s journal. Last year, after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association’s International Health Section, the Association revoked her membership when an anonymous complainant claimed they were made to feel unsafe by her work for Palestinian health justice within the Association.

*Roy Eidelson is the past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence of the American Psychological Association. He is the author of Doing Harm: How the World's Largest Psychological Association Lost Its Way in the War on Terror.