ADL chief favorably compares Elon Musk to antisemite Henry Ford, then thinks again

Jonathan Greenblatt calls Tesla CEO the ‘Henry Ford of our time,’ after his organization repeatedly condemned the automotive pioneer, but later says ‘the reference was wrong’

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt speaks at the group's 2018 National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images via JTA)
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt speaks at the group's 2018 National Leadership Summit in Washington, DC. (Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images via JTA)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jonathan Greenblatt, the Anti-Defamation League CEO, backtracked on Friday after extolling a notorious antisemite as an exemplar of American genius.

Speaking on CNBC Friday morning, Greenblatt praised Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company, perhaps the most infamous American Jew hater and someone Greenblatt has previously criticized.

Greenblatt favorably compared Ford to the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, head of the Tesla electric vehicle company.

“Elon Musk is an amazing entrepreneur, an extraordinary innovator. He’s the Henry Ford of our time,” Greenblatt said about the prospect of Musk taking over the social media platform Twitter.

“He’s taken on big huge complex tasks that no one thought could be solved like rocketry or mobility or solar,” Greenblatt said about Musk. “And to think what he can do with the public square. I mean, I’d certainly have some qualms about just a handful of companies controlling so much of the public debate, but I’m hopeful the regulators will give this a chance.”

It was a jarring analogy. The ADL has outlined how Ford, an automotive pioneer, was one of the lead purveyors of virulent antisemitism in the US in the early 20th century. The ADL has also analyzed whether Ford profited from Nazi slave labor, and in 2020 Greenblatt called on then-US president Donald Trump to apologize for praising Ford.

It was also a 180 for Greenblatt and the ADL on Musk’s intended Twitter acquisition. In April, when Musk revealed his intention to buy the platform, the ADL posted an analysis titled “Elon Musk Plans to Buy Twitter. Right-wing Extremists Rejoice.”

Greenblatt promoted the piece on Twitter, saying it was a “key perspective to pay attention to.” There has been widespread apprehension among Jewish leaders at the prospect of Musk, who has derided curtailing hate speech, controlling Twitter.

After backlash, Greenblatt said he might have made a more apt comparison.

“Admittedly, the Henry Ford reference was wrong even though he was an innovator in the automobile industry. I certainly was not trying to praise Ford and didn’t intend to minimize his contemptible antisemitism in any way,” he said in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Henry Ford. (Hartsook, Library of Congress)

But he added that he stood by his praise for Musk in fields outside social media, and said Musk’s success in his previous ventures meant he could set high expectations for Musk’s Twitter ownership.

“While I clearly could have been much clearer, I was laying down a gauntlet about what we expect Elon Musk to do,” Greenblatt said. “As I have been saying for months, we have serious concerns around how Musk will handle hate and harassment on the platform. As I’ve stated publicly repeatedly, we want to be cautiously optimistic about how Musk will run the platform because he successfully has innovated other industries and tackled incredibly complex problems.”

“I would implore him to apply an equal level of effort and resources, not just to optimizing the business model, but to turning around the toxicity so rampant on Twitter and improving public discourse as a result,” Greenblatt said.

Musk is on the hook to complete his purchase of Twitter by October 28 to avoid a trial over his past effort to back out of the deal. He must finalize $44 billion in financing by then.

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