Search
Close this search box.

ADL Slams Republicans For Calling Facebook CEO “Zuckerbucks”

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019, file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Georgetown University, in Washington. Ever since Russian agents and other opportunists abused its platform in an attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook has insisted, repeatedly, that it’s learned its lesson and is no longer a conduit for misinformation, voter suppression and election disruption. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

The Anti-Defamation League has called on Republicans and others to cease calling Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg “Zuckerbucks,” JTA reported.

The term has been used since last year after Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $400 million through the nonpartisan Center for Technology and Civic Life to assist local election offices ahead of the November vote. A conservative think tank, the Foundation for Government Accountability, published a number of articles that used the “Zuckerbucks” term, claiming that the donation unfairly tilted elections.

The term actually made it into Congress this month when NY Republican Rep. Claudi Tenney proposed the End Zuckerbucks Act, which would bar nonprofits classified as tax-exempt and nonpartisan from donating funds to election offices. The proposal is co-sponsored by two Republican congresswomen, Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.

According to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, the term Zuckerbucks is a revival of the age-old anti-Semitic stereotype that wealthy Jews maintain control over governments.

“In recent years, we’ve seen antisemites alleging that Mark Zuckerberg is ‘proof’ of this stereotype,” Greenblatt told JTA. “Those who use the term ‘Zuckerbucks,’ particularly members of Congress, are dangerously enabling this antisemitic trope, and we urge these policymakers to stop using this term immediately.”

Zuckerberg and his wife donated the $400 million after Senate Republicans banned the same amount from being used by elections offices to facilitate voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans claim that the funds disproportionately aided Democrats since they were overwhelmingly used for lower-income areas with large concentrations of minorities.

Zuckerberg and Chan denied that the funds were used for partisan purposes.

“These funds will serve communities throughout the country — urban, rural and suburban – and are being allocated by non-partisan organizations,” Zuckerberg stated at the time.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)



8 Responses

  1. ADL just another “Jewish” liberal organization crying ‘wolf’ whenever it fits their agenda. It has NOTHING to do with ‘defamation’ what so ever, and they know it…

  2. ADL are a bunch of secular mechalel shabbos ex Jews who cause more anti Semitism than all the anti semites together. They hate frum yidden and are super Obama supporters and vicious Trump haters. They don’t speak for authentic Jews. They collect 50 million dollars a year under the guise of fighting anti Semitism. It’s a racket of crooks and bare headed nobody’s.

  3. It is time for right-leaning Jews to recognize – and oppose – the anti-Semitism among their conservative gentile allies. Yes, there are many anti-Semites on the left, but the right has its fair (or unfair?) share also. And don’t forget that those evangelical Christian friends of Israel want all the Jews gathered there so they can be converted or killed.

  4. This is ridiculous. Nobody is calling Zuckerberg “Zuckerbucks”. People are using that name for the money he gave. They’re Zuckerbucks because they came from Zuckerberg.

    And the fact that there’s a stereotype of wealthy Jews maintaining control over governments doesn’t make it antisemitic to point out when this actually happens. Soros is an evil person who is actually manipulating governments in order to destroy decency and civilization, and it’s not antisemitic to say so. And Zuckerberg is doing the same, to a much smaller extent. That they happen to be Jewish is completely irrelevant, and it’s ridiculous to say that it should shield them from this legitimate criticism.

  5. To milhouse: I am surprised that you do not think the term “Zuckerbucks,” whether it refers to the man, his money, or a bronco named Zucker, is anti-Semitic. The word is changes an obviously Jewish name into a reference to money. That’s anti-Semitic. Yes, it can also refer to money that Zuckerberg pays to politicians,

    As for Soros, he is a skillful investor operating in a relatively free market. The suggestion that he manipulates governments without any evidence – which you did not present, because there is none – is the essence of anti-Semitism. No one uses the terms Mellonbucks or Rockefellerbucks.

Leave a Reply


Popular Posts