UAE leader recognized at Never Is Now Summit for his leadership in brokering the historic Abraham Accords and for promoting peace and dialogue in the Middle East New York, NY, March 3, 2025 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today honored Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates’ Ambassador to the United States, with the Abraham Award at this year’s Never Is Now summit. The award recognized the Ambassador’s instrumental role in brokering the…
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As the year draws to a close, ADL looks back on the moments from 2021 that gave us hope and encouragement that our hundred-plus-year fight against antisemitism and hate is making progress.
And there were plenty of big, inspirational moments to choose from in 2021: A $26 million verdict against the white supremacists responsible for Charlottesville; the launch of a $1.1 billion foundation to help prevent Anti-Asian hate crimes; and meaningful legal victories against racially motivated…
Even in times of tragedy, there are glimmers of humanity. These moments of compassion, of kindness, give us hope for a better future for our children and our children’s children. Building a better world is what has motivated ADL’s work for more than 100 years, and what continues to impel us forward today. With that in mind, ADL’s professionals across the country have selected the decade’s Top 10 Moments of Hope in the United States. It’s hard to fathom how…
The Issue
The university has traditionally served as an enclave for intellectual expression, insulated from the distractions of the world outside. It has also served as a trendsetter for that outside society, a laboratory where social change first begins to ferment and find an outlet. To a large extent, the excitement and passion on American campuses stem from the combination of scholarly debate and student activism in a sheltered environment.
In recent decades, Jews have generally…
September 20, 2024 – As antisemitism reaches unprecedented levels in the United States, ADL (Anti-Defamation League), OneTable, and Passages Israel are working to build bridges between the Jewish and Christian communities through shared experiences and dialogue. Their joint initiative, “A Light in the City,” aims to foster friendship and understanding by hosting Shabbat dinners in four key cities. The pilot program, to take place in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York…
At issue in this case is a wedding photographer who seeks a religious exemption to Louisville's anti-discrimination ordinance for the purpose of denying wedding-related services to same-sex couples. ADL joined 14 other faith-based organizations in a brief led by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The brief argues that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment does not require granting the photographer a religious exemption to this neutral, generally…
New York, NY, February 28, 2023… ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today joined an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case Groff v. DeJoy, supporting people of faith seeking religious accommodations in the workplace under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Title VII requires employers to allow religious accommodations for employees unless doing so would constitute an “undue hardship” for the business. However, in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, the Supreme…
In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison (1977), the Supreme Court held that an employer is required to allow a religious accommodation for an employee under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 unless doing so would constitute an “undue hardship” for the business. However, the Court defined an “undue hardship” as anything that imposes “more than a de minimis cost” for the employer — a very low standard that has made it difficult over the years…
In this case against the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), a Sikh USMC Captain and three Sikh Marine recruits filed suit to be able to serve with their articles of faith. This included a request for the recruits to attend Marine recruit training while maintaining their turbans and beards, which was prohibited in their initial limited religious accommodations. ADL, the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, and Interfaith Alliance filed a motion to participate as amicus curiae in support of the…
By Carole Nuriel and Aykan Erdemir
An examination of textbooks used in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of Moroccan state schools during the 2021-2022 school year indicate that tolerance and diversity are core to the curriculum promoted across Moroccan society. The excerpts on Judaism and Jews that Morocco’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training provided to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) show that the country’s elementary school textbooks depict Jews as an…
At issue in this case is the right of the Thai Meditation Association of Alabama (TMAA) to offer meditation services on property it owns in Mobile, Alabama. TMAA has faced repeated obstacles in its effort to build its facility even though the property is located in a zoning district that encourages religious uses. The brief — filed in coalition with the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, the ACLU, Muslim Advocates, the Orthodox Union, the Sikh American Legal Defense and…
New York, NY, August 9, 2022 ... ADL (Anti-Defamation League) issued the following statement today on International Day of the World's Indigenous People:
"As we observe International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, ADL reflects on our relationship with Indigenous people and organizations across North America. The Papal visit in Canada last week underscored the deep and painful history North American Indigenous Peoples have endured and the work yet to be done to secure justice…
This case involves a public high school football coach who filed a lawsuit claiming religious discrimination under the Free Exercise Clause and employment discrimination laws after he was fired for refusing to stop kneeling in prayer at the football field's 50-yard line immediately following every game. This practice started after the school district directed him to stop leading his team in pre- and post-game prayer, which the coach had done for eight years prior. The lower courts repeatedly…
At issue in this case is a business invoking the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to seek a religious exemption from a New York State anti-discrimination law for the purpose of denying wedding photography services to LGBTQ+ couples. In opposing this claim, the legal brief joined by ADL asserts that such an exemption is not required by the Free Exercise Clause. Furthermore, New York’s public accommodations law does not coerce participation in religious activity. Finally,…
New York, NY, November 29, 2021… Members of ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League’s) Task Force on Middle East Minorities issued a letter today calling on United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken to broaden the criteria for Priority-2 refugee admissions status to include Afghan nationals from ethnic and religious minority groups that have a well-founded fear of persecution under Taliban rule.
Vulnerable ethnic and religious groups are now in much greater peril since…
New York, NY, November 9, 2021 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today honored five-time Olympic gold medalist and four-time WNBA champion Sue Bird with its inaugural Changemaker Award for continuously using her platform to affect positive social change and empowering others to be open in their identity, beliefs and embrace authenticity.
“Sue, through her tireless work on and off the court, exemplifies everything we could possibly envision for ADL’s inaugural…
New York, NY, November 9, 2021 … Mohammed AL Samawi was honored today at ADL’s annual Never Is Now Summit on Antisemitism and Hate with the prestigious Daniel Pearl Award. AL Samawi, a Yemeni refugee and author of The Fox Hunt: A Refugee’s Memoir of Coming to America, was honored for his work as an interfaith activist, his moving story of being rescued as a refugee, and his founding of Abrahamic House, an organization dedicated to building sustainable interfaith…
At issue in this case is a free exercise challenge to a Maine secondary school tuition assistance program. To provide for high school education in over half of the State’s school districts that do not have public secondary schools, Maine pays for students to attend public or private schools which provide secular education, including religiously affiliated schools that do not indoctrinate religion. The lawsuit was brought by parents seeking to send their children to religious schools. ADL…
New York, NY, September 2, 2021 … The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (USCJ) and ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) have agreed to form a partnership aimed at combating the alarming rise in antisemitic rhetoric and violence through education and advocacy.
This partnership will make ADL’s expertise and tools readily accessible to almost 600 USCJ-affiliated synagogues through the latter’s own vast media channels. ADL and USCJ will also deliver jointly designed…
New York, NY, August 18, 2021 … ADL’s (Anti-Defamation League) Task Force on Middle East Minorities today expressed deep concern about the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, an Islamist extremist group known for its horrific brutality against women, children, and religious and other minorities.
The Task Force issued the following statement:
We have no doubt that Taliban rule will prove to be devastating for Afghanistan’s minority communities.
We call…