Related Content
Dear Friends,
As we get ready to welcome 2024, I think we can all agree that 2023 has been a long year. A really long year. So this is going to be a long article; but it’s important to recognize the work that the ADL team – our staff in offices across the country and in Israel alongside our dedicated supporters like you – has done this year in the face of so many challenges.
2023 started off relatively quietly, especially when you consider that two years ago, January saw violent extremists storm our nation’s Capitol and one year ago, a terrifying hostage crisis at Congregation Beth El in Colleyville, TX. In mid-January, the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research released a comprehensive survey of antisemitic attitudes that found that the number of people in the U.S. who harbored extensive prejudice against Jews had hit the highest level in decades. Among the findings: 20 percent said Jews have “too much power” in the United States and 18 percent said they are uncomfortable spending time with a pro-Israel person. Younger adults held more negative sentiment toward Israel and its supporters. That last information is particularly interesting given the campus turmoil Jews and other Zionists now face.
In February, the ADL Center on Extremism dug into how extremist groups have used internet crowdfunding to raise millions of dollars. We also began what has been a yearlong push to address antisemitism in the office by launching our Antisemitism 101 for the Workplace module. By the year’s end, many major companies in the U.S. had taken some form of action against antisemitism alongside ADL. Midmonth, the shooting of two Los Angeles Jews on their way home from services in less than 24 hours alarmed the city. ADL’s LA regional office and Center on Extremism supported law enforcement and ensured that the Jewish community felt solidarity from the city’s leadership.
ADL was part of a historic announcement in March, as I went to the United Arab Emirates for the launch of the Manara Center — The Regional Center for Coexistence. ADL is a core partner in this initiative. Our annual flagship report, the Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which is widely used as a barometer of the level of antisemitism in the United States, revealed that these incidents were up by 36% over the previous year, and numbered 3,697 reported incidents. They were fed in part by white supremacist activity and high numbers of bomb threats and incidents at schools. These are not just statistics; every one of our ADL offices across the country has provided guidance and support to people in their communities who have encountered hate.
Also in March, ADL announced the first Jewish Security Alliance to share intelligence, resources and training to safeguard synagogues, schools, community centers and other Jewish institutions. This first JSA includes eight leading organizations serving the Jewish community in New York and New Jersey. Later in 2023, ADL helped launch the Southern California Jewish Security Alliance, the next in what will be a growing number of partnerships to protect Jewish communities.
In April, ADL launched “Learn to Never Forget,” a push to improve and expand Holocaust education, which is an effective lever for fighting antisemitism. The ADL Center for Technology and Society published its second Online Holocaust Denial Report Card, highlighting the role social media plays in spreading Holocaust denial and how platforms are not doing enough to remove explicit Holocaust denial content. ADL’s efforts have paid dividends in 2023, with two separate ADL-championed Acts making progress in Congress, several states moving ahead on aspects of Holocaust education and with Holocaust education research becoming part of one of May’s big ADL news items…
That was the rollout of the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which ADL has been pushing for since 2019, and which includes more than 30 policy recommendations from our staff.
In May we celebrated Jewish American Heritage Month, which lifts up the ways that Jewish Americans enrich American life, and hosted our annual No Place for Hate Day, which honors the nearly 2 million U.S. students who take part in ADL’s No Place for Hate program to help create more equitable and inclusive classrooms. At the end of the month, we released the latest ADL Global 100 update, centered on the magnitude of entrenched anti-Jewish beliefs in Europe.
In June, ADL accelerated our program to embed investigators from partner organizations alongside the ADL Center on Extremism, with the goal of expanding our relationships with marginalized communities and responding decisively to threats. We now host embeds from the Community Security Initiative, GLAAD, Maura’s Voice and TAAF (The Asian American Foundation). This year’s release of our ADL Center for Technology and Society’s Online Hate and Harassment report showed appalling results, with 52% of adults surveyed having been harassed online at some point. They also released a companion report card in July that put a spotlight on how major platforms are doing in fighting online hate, and we pressed key recommendations.
ADL released a report in August that examined how anti-Israel bias from left-leaning political organizations in Europe has devolved into antisemitism. In the U.S., the ADL Center on Extremism and regional offices helped dozens of synagogues and other Jewish institutions contend with an antisemitic ‘swatting’ campaign. Later in the month, ADL led Jewish communal participation at the 60th Anniversary of Dr. King’s March on Washington, where we advocated for justice alongside civil rights organizations.
In September, ADL condemned Elon Musk for engaging with antisemites and other extremists on X/Twitter, following the antisemitic “#bantheadl” campaign. We did so again in November, after Musk directly responded to a dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theory.
And then there was October… On October 7, we reeled at the deadliest day for world Jewry since the Holocaust. Here’s a clip from the email we sent you that day:
Today the Hamas terrorist organization launched a deadly full-scale war on Israel. Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, infiltrated cities and towns across Israel’s south, and fired thousands of rockets and missiles at cities across the country. While reports are still coming in, at least 100 Israelis have reportedly been killed and many are unaccounted for, including some who have been kidnapped by Hamas and taken into Gaza. I assume that regardless of where you are on this Saturday, you’re watching the news unfolding with shock and horror. It’s a truly terrifying situation.
The depravity of these attacks boggles the mind. Stalking people in the streets. Gunning down elderly people standing at a bus stop. Kidnapping teenagers at a dance party. Seizing young mothers and toddlers out of their homes and taking them as hostages. Celebrating and dancing on the mutilated bodies of civilians and soldiers. There are few words that capture how I feel to see such evil except perhaps anger and revulsion — but also determination and strength.
In this moment and in the days ahead, ADL will stand unapologetically, unequivocally and unshakably with the state of Israel. We will pray for the safety of all our ADL colleagues and their loved ones, for the safety of our families and friends in the country, and for the safety of every single Israeli irrespective of their ethnicity, faith, persuasion or political views. And we will mourn those who have been murdered — may their memories be as a blessing.
ADL is on full alert, leveraging our capabilities and leaning into our expertise in monitoring how antisemitism emerges from crises like this.
Each day since October 7 has been a challenging one. We know that 1,200 people were murdered that day and 240 taken hostage. Around 130 hostages remain in cruel captivity in Gaza.
You and the rest of the ADL community have played an important role in responding. ADL voices have said loud and clear that it is essential to reject the hate and misinformation fueled by Hamas and their supporters and to support the hostages and push for them to be set free.
As antisemitic incidents rose dramatically after the attack, in the US and around the globe, ADL was there. We pushed campus leaders to take action against campus antisemitism. We helped launch a new helpline for students experiencing antisemitism that has already been used hundreds of times. As hate, misinformation and disinformation spread online, CTS conducted a survey that showed how platforms were struggling to contain the spread of hate and harassment and reported on the alarming spike in online antisemitism on certain social media platforms. ADL provided a safety guide to encourage our community to report problems.
The ADL Center on Extremism debunked viral misinformation about the war that swept across the internet. Given the intense media focus on Israel and Hamas, we also provided the news media with guidelines. In this climate of rising antisemitism, we also stepped up our push for support in the workplace, and by late in the month, we reported the more than 100 companies that had signed ADL’s workplace pledge to fight antisemitism.
November brought more ADL efforts to support Israel, free the hostages and take action against antisemitism and anti-Zionism. ADL helped bring together a massive March for Israel in DC, as nearly 300,000 people showed the nation’s deep commitment to supporting Israel, demanding the release of the hostages and opposing antisemitism.
In December, we gave university leaders an ‘F’ for their failure to protect their Jewish students. The leaders of several prominent schools waffled when asked to clearly speak out against calls for genocide against Jews (watch a video clip of this). ADL helped launch the 10/7 Project to push for fact-based coverage of Hamas and Israel.
Our solidarity mission to Israel started in ‘Hostage Square’ where we lit a menorah alongside the families of those still in captivity, went to the Lebanon border where attacks by Hezbollah are flaring up and then to the devastated Israeli towns near Gaza. We also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to discuss both the crisis in Israel and the well-being of the American and global Jewish communities. Afterwards, we traveled to a meeting of the J7, an alliance of the largest Jewish communities outside Israel, as we shared insights on how to address the sharp increases in antisemitic incidents that we all face.
During all of these unprecedented moments, the ADL community was there, vigilant in rejecting antisemitism, supporting Israel in its time of need and finding ways to Fight Hate for Good. We thank all of you for joining with us in 2023.
Your support for ADL’s mission, to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all has been vital this year and will be equally critical in 2024 and beyond.
Sincerely,
Jonathan Greenblatt
ADL CEO and National Director