‘Serial Liar’: ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt Slammed for False Claims on CNBC About NYC Candidate Mamdani
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt faced intense backlash after falsely claiming Zohran Mamdami never visited a synagogue during his campaign in an interview on CNBC.
In a Monday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Greenblatt leveled multiple criticisms at the New York City mayoral candidate — most notably over Mamdami’s previously refusal to condemn the term “globalize the intifada” and his stance on Israel. Greenblatt said:
This candidate has gone to Harlem to meet the Black community; Washington Heights, to meet the Latino community; Chinatown, to meet the Asian American community. Not once to a Jewish neighborhood.
CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin, who was conducting the interview, did not push back on Greenblatt’s claims, including his argument that Mamdani “believes” in the intifada slogan — which Mamdani has never publicly stated himself and which he recently distanced himself from.
As noted by senior political reporter Jacob N. Kornbluh of the Jewish outlet Forward, Greenblatt’s statements were incorrect for multiple reasons:
Contrary to Greenblatt’s assertion, Mamdani attended Shabbat services in Park Slope in February, visited the offices of the UJA Federation for a town hall co-hosted with the Jewish Community Relations Council in May, and participated in two candidate forums at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Manhattan in June.
Forward also called out Greenblatt for “wrongly” claiming Mamdani “didn’t reach out to Hasidic voters in their native Yiddish language.”
In a statement obtained by Forward, Greenblatt’s office clarified that the CEO was referring to Mamdani’s actions after the primary.
“To our knowledge, the candidate hasn’t gone to a mainstream synagogue or Jewish organization since the primary ended,” the statement said.
Whether it was a matter of misspeaking or blatantly lying, Greenblatt’s comments were not received well online.
“You can actually correct somebody on TV if he’s lying to you,” said Semafor political reporter Dave Weigel, referring to Sorkin. “It’s legal.”
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