{"id":1434,"date":"2022-12-05T11:23:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/?p=1434"},"modified":"2025-08-18T09:11:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T14:11:39","slug":"november-2022-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/november-2022-update\/","title":{"rendered":"November 2022 Update: ADL with Bourla (CEO of Pfizer), Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (kidnapped in Colleyville synagogue) President of Adidas (who fired Kanye), and Liz Cheney (who fought for the Constitution)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In early November, I attended the ADL conference for the first time at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. In our fractious society, I thought I needed a bit of inspiration (or at least, more insight). Happily I got both.<\/p>\n

Highlights of the conference follow, and at the end, a spoiler alert:<\/p>\n

This conference was focussed on anti-Semitism, whose enormous rise is up 34% from last year\u2014with over 2700 incidents against Jews. Despite Jews being less than 2% of US population, over 60% of violence (against any group) was directed against Jews in the past year. Incredible, right?<\/p>\n

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti Defamation League, has been busy. Every week, it seems there are new problems to address. Former President Trump recently dined with Kanye West and Holocaust denier, Nick Fuentes, at his Mar-a-Lago Florida home\u2014despite Kanye ranting about Jews while praising Hitler (\u201cI like Hitler\u201d!) and despite Fuentes, a white nationalist who denies the Holocaust. To him, I might ask, \u201cThen where are my grandparents, their siblings, their spouses, and all their children?\u201d<\/p>\n

By the way, after Trump\u2019s recent announcement that he will run for President again, Greenblatt, paraphrased the familiar MAGA slogan (Make America Great Again), and tweeted \u201cMake America Hate Again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, receiving Courage Against Hate award from Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Among the speakers were Albert Bourla<\/strong> (CEO of Pfizer) given a Courage Against Hate award\u2014highlighting his courage, despite death threats, to keep producing and distributing the Pfizer vaccine throughout the world\u2014and for free to very poor countries who have no money to pay for it; Christopher Wray<\/strong>, current Director of the FBI describing special training new FBI agents are getting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC; Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker<\/strong>, who was held hostage in his former synagogue in Colleyville, Texas; journalists Bret Stephens<\/strong> (of NYT), Ruth Marcus<\/strong> and Gene Robinson<\/strong> (both of the Washington Post), giving their views about the midterms that had just taken place and about the upcoming 2024 election (Note: ADL conference occurred on Thursday, January 10, only two days after the Midterms). <\/p>\n

\"\"

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, held hostage in Colleyville, Texas, with Ann Weiss<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Two of the most astounding speakers were Liz Cheney (recently voted out of office, and staunch member of the January 6th Commission) and Rupert Campbell, President of Adidas\u2014he was a complete surprise to audience!<\/p>\n

\"\"

Liz Cheney explaining what\u2019s most important to her, with Abby Pogrebin<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

When Liz Cheney<\/strong> was asked the pivotal question by her interlocateur, Abby Pogrebin: \u201cIf you knew that you would lose your job and your power, would you do it again?\u201d her answer was clear and unequivocal: \u201cI didn\u2019t do what I did for power or to keep my job. I did it to protect the constitution!\u201d And without hesitation, she affirmed she would do it again. Although Liz Cheney, herself a staunch conservative, is not a natural choice to speak at the more liberal ADL, the packed room exploded with applause and admiration for her.<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise of the conference was the appearance of Adidas\u2019 North American President, Rupert Campbell<\/strong>. Remember that, after Kanye\u2019s anti-Semitic rants, all his sponsors immediately dropped him, including the high end fashion company, Balenciaga. Only Adidas did not severed its ties with Kanye. <\/p>\n

Jonathan Greenblatt began his opening speech, detailing ADL\u2019s work around the world, but very soon, he spoke about Adidas. He told the audience that he had called the president of Adidas and informed him that ADL would keep \u2018hammering\u2019 Adidas, non-stop, UNTIL they did \u201cthe right thing\u201d (i.e., cut their ties with a ranting anti-Semite) and that, once they did, then ADL would praise and publicize Adidas\u2014but not until then. <\/p>\n

And finally Adidas did drop Kanye!\u2014and Jonathan Greenblatt proudly showed off his brand new Adidas sneakers (purchased the night before). And to the shock of the audience, out came the president of Adidas!<\/p>\n

\"\"

President of Adidas, North America, Rupert Campbell<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Born in Jamaica, and himself an immigrant, Rupert Campbell was raised in London but has lived in many countries\u2014including Ukraine and in Russia. He explained that Adidas\u2019 delay in severing ties with Kanye was due to complications in dissolving their contract\u2014which took several days to unravel. And then he made an astounding announcement: Not only would Adidas never<\/u> work with anti-Semites or bigots again, but they would now be PARTNERING on projects with ADL! What a long way they have come!<\/p>\n

The day was filled with activists and experts. We heard formal talks and inside reports from world leaders of Jewish communities in France, Great Britain, Canada and Chile. We also heard college students talk about the difficulties they experienced with anti-Semitic groups and actions against Jews on their own college campuses\u2014and how these students chose to fight it. And in the midst of it all, I met people from around the world. <\/p>\n

One of the most memorable was my meeting with an official from Israel\u2019s Ministry of Justice, Marlene Masel. <\/p>\n

\"\"

Israel Ministry of Justice officials, Marlene Mazel (left) Director of Terrorism and Counterterrorism with Shira Meir (right), Director of Foreign Relations<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Marlene Masel is Director of the Office of Terrorism and Counter Terrorism, based in Jerusalem, Israel. Aside from our sharing a very warm connection\u2014she made it clear that her office does not only protect Jews in Israel, but all over the world\u2014the photo I took of her and Israel\u2019s Director of Foreign Relations at the Ministry of Justice, Shira Meir, is featured on the Ministry\u2019s web site! And our book, The Last Album: Eyes from the Ashes of Auschwitz-Birkenau<\/u> is now housed in the library of the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem. In my inscription, I was drew a contrast between the people featured in the book and the work she is doing: \u201cAs you protect the people of Israel from their enemies, think of the people in these pages, people who were NOT protected by their government\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"

Israeli Ministry of Justice official, Marlene Mazel with Ann Weiss
<\/small><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

From beginning to end, this ADL conference was filled with vital information, vibrant talks with people (both on stage and off), and much needed inspiration. I am so grateful for all of it! And have enough strength \u2018to keep on keeping on\u2019!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In early November, I attended the ADL conference for the first time at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. In our fractious society, I thought I needed a bit of inspiration (or at least, more insight). Happily I got both. Highlights of the conference follow, and at the end, a spoiler alert: This conference was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7778,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fromann"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1434"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1705,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1434\/revisions\/1705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelastalbum.org\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}