December 20, 2018 Imagine the terrified, demoralizing feeling of going to your place of worship, and seeing hateful graffiti spread across its walls—graffiti that directly targets and assaults not only your faith, but who you are as a person. That’s exactly what happened in Mandeville, Louisiana on September 5, 2018, at Northshore Jewish Congregation (NJC). Imagine being Rebecca Slifkin, who worked at NJC, whose concerned neighbors came by to tell her about being shocked and…

December 17, 2018 FBI agents and Snohomish County deputies arrested a Washington state white supremacist last week for allegedly making threats to carry out mass killings of Jews and other minorities.  Dakota Reed, 20, of Monroe, Washington, was charged with malicious harassment—Washington’s hate crime statute—and making bomb threats.  Authorities also seized a cache of firearms, ammunition and white supremacist propaganda from Reed’s residence. The…

December 06, 2018 A capacity crowd of over 1,200 people came together on Monday, Dec. 3 at Never Is Now 2018, ADL’s Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate. We were thrilled to see so many business, community, academic and religious leaders mix with students to tackle the pressing and perplexing issues around anti-Semitism and hate. Check out a few highlights from the event! ADL's CEO and National Director, Jonathan Greenblatt, kicked off the summit by addressing the current state of…

November 27, 2018 UPDATE: In response to comments from President Trump regarding dual-loyalty concerns for American Jews, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt spoke at length about the issue on CNN on 8/21/19. Please view the clip here. The charge of disloyalty has been used to harass, marginalize, and persecute the Jewish people for centuries. Sometimes referred to as the “dual loyalty” charge, it alleges that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens because…

November 19, 2018 In an email to supporters three weeks after the October 2018 death of Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, English traditionalist Catholic bishop Richard Williamson reconfirmed his belief that the Holocaust is a hoax perpetrated by Jews.   Williamson, who considers himself a leader of the “resistance” against efforts to modernize the Catholic Church, is a former member of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), a Catholic group that rejected the reforms issued by…

November 15, 2018 In a chilling postscript to Robert Bowers’ murderous October shooting spree at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, authorities in Washington, D.C., arrested Jeffrey Raphiel Clark, Jr., 30, an on-line associate of Bowers. The November 9 arrest came after family members contacted law enforcement out of concern that Clark might become violent. Clark was charged with illegal transportation of a firearm across state lines, possession of an illegal high-capacity…

November 14, 2018 “HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders in that kill our people,” declared the post on the social media site Gab, “I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.  Screw your optics, I’m going in.”  Just minutes later, Robert Bowers, who is believed to be the author of that post, entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and opened fire on congregants, allegedly shouting &ldquo…

November 08, 2018 By Mario Perez | Coordinator and Social Science/Human Geography Teacher at the Newcomer Center in Arlington Heights, IL As the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht approaches, I am drawn to the words of Holocaust survivor Kurt Messerchmidt: “Silence is what did the harm.” I can’t help but consider the relevance of this statement and Kurt's experiences during the Holocaust to the lives of my students. The anniversary of Kristallnacht, as…

November 07, 2018 The 2018 midterms were not kind to most of the country’s extremist and bigoted candidates, but a number of them did garner disturbingly high vote counts. More than 1.8 million Americans voted for known extremists and bigots who were running for national offices. In races for the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, extremists pulled in, on average, 29% percent of the vote. It’s important to acknowledge that some of these votes – perhaps even…

November 06, 2018 Robert Bowers appears to have referenced “optics” on social media prior to allegedly opening fire at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. His comments -- “Screw your optics, I’m going in.” -- and extremists’ reaction to them highlight a division that has dogged the white supremacist movement since August 2017’s violent “Unite the Right” rally. Following the shooting rampage, Matt Parrott, co-founder of the now…

November 05, 2018 Louis Farrakhan spent Sunday in Iran, according to the English language version of MEHR, an Iranian news agency, spewing anti-American, anti-Israel rhetoric. The Nation of Islam leader, ostensibly in Iran to mark the 39th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, lashed out repeatedly at the U.S. and the Trump administration’s new sanctions against Iran. He reportedly called the U.S. a “big liar” and described the new sanctions as …

November 05, 2018 The Road to Power, a white supremacist and anti-Semitic broadcasting outlet based in Sandpoint, Idaho, continues to ramp up its tactic of robocalling communities nationwide with racist, anti-Semitic and bigoted language. The calls, which have targeted communities in California, Idaho, Iowa, Florida, Georgia and Pennsylvania, seek to exploit current events by disseminating vile, offensive commentary.  Robocalls are a relatively low-cost and easy means of communicating…

November 05, 2018 UPDATE: On November 3, one week after the massacre at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue and six days after going dark, Gab found a new home at Epik.com. In a statement, Epik’s CEO, Robert W. Monster, explained his willingness to host Gab, writing, “De-platforming a haven of free speech is not about left or right.” He also quoted Edmund Burke’s famous warning, “Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it,” superimposed…