In this handout photo provided by the Israel Government Press Office (GPO), former US President Donald J Trump (L) and former White House senior adviser Jared Kushner met with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) at the King David Hotel May 22, 2017 in Jerusalem, Israel. Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO via Getty Images

By Lauren Markoe March 6, 2024

Three people were removed from the ADL’s annual conference on antisemitism on Wednesday after yelling “warmonger” and “ceasefire now” during a speech by Jared Kushner that the organization billed as a keynote.

Kushner, the son-in-law and Middle East adviser to former President Donald Trump, was being honored for his work negotiating the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and several Gulf Arab countries. He did not stop speaking as security officers escorted the protesters from the hall. 

Several dozen of the estimated 4,000 attendees at the “Never is Now” conference walked out silently as Kushner began to speak. 

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The award for Kushner has been hotly debated among ADL staff and supporters. Many said Trump’s alliances with extremists and Kushner’s failure to call him out for antisemitic remarks, made him no candidate for an award from a group devoted to combating bigotry.

In introducing Kushner on Wednesday at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, Jonathan Greenblatt, the ADL’s CEO, began by saying, “Our next speaker is someone I have disagreed with strenuously.”  

In the days before the conference, he said, more than a few people “have asked me ‘why?” ADL was honoring Kushner, said, noting the “exasperation” of board members and others.

“Why?” many people in the audience shouted toward the stage.

“I hear you,” he replied.

“Part of the answer is the simple fact that ADL is not a partisan organization,” he said. “Some of you are Republicans. Some of you are Democrats. Some belong to neither party. And in the same way, he said, some of you spend Shabbat morning in synagogue and for some of us Saturday mornings “is for golf or tennis.”

“We are living in an Oct. 8th world and I firmly believe that we as a Jewish community cannot afford to be divided,” Greenblatt said. “We cannot allow the partisanship and the polarization that has poisoned so much of our society. We can’t allow it to do the same to us.”

He added, “I really don’t care how you vote, but the Abraham Accords are a groundbreaking achievement.”

Kushner said from the stage that he was at first skeptical of accepting the award because he thought the ADL had become too political, but decided to because the group’s mission “transcends” ideology. “We cannot let this be about politics,” he said. “This is about the Jews.”  

Kushner, who has said that he will not be part of any future Trump administration, nonetheless defended his father-in-law during his 30-minute speech. 

“He’s not an antisemite,” he said. Some in the audience jeered. 

But others cheered when Kushner spoke of his wife Ivanka’s conversion, and the fact that Trump had blessed it — and attended their son’s brit milah,

Kushner only briefly addressed the war in Gaza, in which Israeli forces have killed an estimated 30,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack that spawned it. 

“My heart goes out to the Palestinian people,” Kushner said. “They could use better friends as well.”

An ADL spokesperson said that the three protesters were not just removed from the hall where Kushner spoke, but from the conference. Asked why, the spokesperson said they were removed “for overtly disruptive actions,” though Kushner was not drowned out or prevented from speaking, and that the removal was “in accordance with our longstanding safety protocols.” 

The spokesperson said the group would “conduct a full review regarding credentials in the days ahead.

There was a heavy police presence inside and around the convention center on Wednesday morning. At least a dozen officers guarded an entrance where about 20 protesters held banners including “ADL Side With Humanity” and “Ceasefire Now.” They sang “Lo yisa goy el goy cherev,” a Hebrew antiwar anthem. 

JTA contributed to this report.

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