Jonathan Greenblatt

“My former boss Barack Obama likes to invoke a teaching of Martin Luther King Jr.: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." It sounds nice but it's not quite true. The arc can bend toward justice, but much of the time it tacks stubbornly toward the status quo. We must be willing to do the work, reaching up with our own hands and wrenching the arc away from stasis and toward a better future. And when the arc seems to be bending away from justice, we have to dig deep, muster even greater resources, and bend it back.”

“The FBI, for instance, includes "feeling alone or lacking meaning and purpose in life," "being emotionally upset after a stressful event," "not feeling valued or appreciated by society," and "believing they have limited chances to succeed" as among the factors that make people vulnerable to radicalization. Research has suggested that extremists have higher rates of childhood trauma than members of the general population.”

“Every hateful thought or deed matters—not just because of the direct harm it causes to others, but because of the indirect role it plays as a vector for the spread of hate. Horrific attacks such as the one that took place at the Tree of Life synagogue don't just happen out of nowhere. They happen because over time, biased thinking and disrespectful behavior become normalized, leading larger numbers of people to demonize, dehumanize, and diminish the outsider.”

“I have gone after Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump, plenty of other people on the right who are white. I have gone after plenty of people on the left who are white. I have gone after—I shouldn't say "gone after", but called out people like Candace Owens, and people like Kanye [West], and others.”

“I believe that you call people in before you call them out. And I don't believe in cancel culture, I believe in counsel culture.”