WASHINGTON — At an annual event meant to honor people who champion its agenda, the Anti-Defamation League spotlighted a roster of Israelis and Americans whose stories reflected the fears and small triumphs Jews have experienced following more than a year of war in Israel and antipathy at home.
There were three college students who fought campus antisemitism; survivors of Hamas’ Nova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023; a Holocaust survivor and several others whose examples were meant to inspire the crowd that gathered at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center on Monday.
Almost unmentioned at the Concert Against Hate, however, was another more recent development that has likely sparked uncertainty and, perhaps, fear among some in the audience: the return to office of former President Donald Trump.
The near omission — Ben Stiller, the emcee, did crack a joke about the incoming administration — was especially notable because the last time Trump was the president-elect, eight years ago, the concert focused on domestic terror and extremism, phenomena that, according to the ADL and other Trump critics, he had egged on. Then, the concert’s honorees were all victims of extremist violence in the United States — and none of them was Jewish.
This time, the focus was on Israel and the spike in antisemitism that has come alongside its multi-front war.
“The past 12 months have been filled with terror, death and destruction, and I would say that it’s been one the most precarious in the long history of the Jewish people,” the ADL’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, said Monday night.
“It’s hard to fathom the brutality of the attacks on 10/7,” he said. “It’s hard to wrap our heads around what the hostages have endured.” Greenblatt noted the presence at the event of families of some of the 101 hostages still held by Hamas.
The ADL is one of many Jewish groups that have centered their end-of-year events on Israel and campus antisemitism 13 months after the Oct. 7 attack. But the focus also represents a broader shift the group has undergone since 2016, when it frequently took on Trump. In his first term, Greenblatt and the group frequently condemned his expressions of bigotry and incitement of violence.
This time, the group has not been as outspoken, and dating back to before Oct. 7, has emphasized the danger of hate from anti-Zionists. In the weeks before the election, the ADL drew flak for waiting to criticize Trump and his acolytes after the inflammatory rally in Madison Square Garden, and for qualifying the criticism it did express. The shift also comes as public figures and groups have in many cases toned down their criticism of Trump in the wake of his repeated pledges of “retribution.”
On Monday night, Greenblatt listed a number of social media platforms the ADL continues to confront on hate speech — but did not include X, owned by Trump ally Elon Musk, which has consistently been on the receiving end of criticism for its weak policing of bigotry.
“Our Center for Technology and Society is working to ensure users of all types, all races and religions, creeds and colors, get fair treatment online in every platform and service from Amazon to Apple, TikTok to Twitch, WhatsApp to Wikipedia — we will take all of them on,” he said.
An ADL official said the recent election, returning Trump to power, was not a consideration in the planning for the evening, which began months in advance. The official added that Trump’s election in 2016 was likewise not a factor in choosing that year’s honorees, who had included victims of Islamist and white supremacist violence. The 2016 honorees “demonstrated tremendous courage in the face of terrible acts of hate,” the ADL said at the time.
The point of Monday evening was to honor individuals who further the fight against bigotry and the protection of the vulnerable, said the official, who spoke anonymously to be candid. The tone is one of optimism and of finding people who inspire.
“They go out and they look for the best heroes to highlight,” said the official of the ADL staffers and lay leaders who organize the evening, which traditionally takes place in November.
Aside from the students, Nova survivors and Holocaust survivor, the honorees this year included Mehnaz Afridi, a Muslim religious studies professor who includes antisemitism in her curriculum; and Charles Chavis Jr., a historian of the Black-Jewish alliance (which, Stiller joked, culminated in Lenny Kravitz).
Israeli singer Eden Golan, who competed amid protest at last year’s Eurovision contest, performed “October Rain,” her tribute to the survivors and victims of Oct. 7, which the Eurovision Song Contest insisted she alter — to “Hurricane” — to avoid violating the contest’s ban on political speech.
The singer Sia, backed by the National Symphony Orchestra, performed “Titanium,” her 2011 hit recorded with David Guetta, after being introduced by survivors of the Nova festival, including one of her fans, Danielle Gelbaum.
The singer, clad in a midnight blue cloak, wearing what appeared to be a vast wig of black and blond curls topped by a massive bow, did not change the lyrics, which are about how one becomes “bulletproof” to endure the pitfalls of a romance gone wrong. The words took on additional meaning as she was hugged close afterward by the survivors, who had lived through a shooting massacre.
The NSO, in its rendition of the song’s opening, inserted a phrase from Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah.”
Scooter Braun, the impresario and music producer, got an extended tribute for his work in mounting exhibitions and raising awareness about the Nova massacre. He also got nods for his work bringing relief to New Orleans after Hurricane Harvey, and in amplifying the testimony of survivors of the 2017 deadly terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, as well as of the survivors of the 2018 Parkland high school mass shooting.
He expressed outrage that in the wake of Oct. 7, some pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel voices demanded that the massacres be understood in context — when that was never true of the Grande concert shooting.
“No one asked if the young man who waited to blow himself up when he saw the most amount of children and parents gathered together. No one asked if he was a freedom fighter. No one asked, ‘What was the reason?’ They just said, ‘This is wrong,’” he said.
He described his upbringing as the grandchild of a couple who met at an ADL event and how when he was 15, he became an ADL youth speaker on the Holocaust. His other grandparents, he said, were Holocaust survivors.
“I grew up with this idea of ‘Never again,’” Braun said.
The clearest mention of Trump came courtesy of Stiller, who alluded to the new administration in a hall packed with an audience that was knowing and appreciative.
“Tonight, we’re going to raise the roof on the Kennedy Center before it’s renamed the Robert F. Kennedy, Jr center for animal disposal,” Stiller said, referring to Trump’s controversial pick for health secretary who has has multiple unusual encounters with wildlife. That got extended laughter and applause.
Stiller spoke of the threats of violence faced not just by Jews, but other communities as well.
“The fight against one form of prejudice cannot succeed without battling prejudice in all forms, and right now, we’re seeing exponential increases in hate crimes and violence against Jews, Muslims and many other marginalized communities across our country and across the globe.” he said.
He also teased Greenblatt and his reputation as a scold, saying the CEO’s first words as a toddler were “How dare you!” and that he was named “One of the top 50 Jews you don’t want to f— with.”
Stiller also poked fun at Braun, who is notorious for his dispute with superstar singer Taylor Swift over his 2019 purchase of the masters to her recordings. Since then, she has begun rerecording every one of her albums to reclaim ownership of her songs.
Swift in 2019 denounced Braun in a speech when she was named Billboard’s “Woman of the Decade.”
The controversy spurred Stiller to one more improvised joke: “Scooter, I have so much respect for what you did,” Stiller said. “Taylor Swift just said she’s rerecording her speech.”
Laughter once again rumbled through the vast Kennedy Center concert hall, and Braun managed a tense grin.
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