The head of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Technology and Society, which combats online hate speech, departed the organization Tuesday in a move that a current ADL employee told Jewish Currents was linked to CEO Jonathan Greenblatt’s praise of Elon Musk despite the X, formerly Twitter, owner pushing antisemitic and white nationalist content on his platform. Five current and former ADL staffers told the magazine that Yaël Eisenstat’s decision to leave, along with three other members of CTS, came due to Greenblatt increasingly targeting pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist activism over antisemitism, especially following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Eisenstat, however, posted on LinkedIn that the decision was a result of her desire to focus more directly on elections and pro-democracy work. “With the incredibly high-stakes US election approaching, I feel compelled to turn all my attention to the work I was doing before joining ADL, with a laser focus on technology’s effects on elections and democracy,” she wrote.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Eisenstat’s public explanation for her departure.