ADL Articles

April 23, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The former Minneapolis Police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than 9 minutes last year was found guilty Tuesday of all three charges against him, including second-degree murder. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt asked advertisers to pull their ads from Fox News and its prime-time show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in a speech to the World Federation of Advertisers. The Senate passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a hate crimes…

November 06, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 As the country waited anxiously for all the votes to be counted in the U.S. presidential election, ADL urged calm and patience and reiterated our longstanding calls that every vote counts and every vote must be counted. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican candidate from Georgia who has espoused the antisemitic QAnon conspiracy theory and employed racist rhetoric during her congressional campaign was elected to the House of Representatives. And ADL…

June 18, 2020 Amid the ongoing threat of the coronavirus, there are surging reports of xenophobic and racist incidents targeting members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in the U.S. Since January 2020, there have been a significant number of reports of AAPI individuals being threatened and harassed on the street. These incidents include being told to “Go back to China,” being blamed for “bringing the virus” to the United…

June 12, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 A man who rammed his truck into a crowd of peaceful protesters in Virginia on Sunday, injuring one person, is a Ku Klux Klan leader, authorities said. NASCAR said Wednesday that it is banning the display of the Confederate flag at all of its events and properties. A video of a uniformed New York City police officer appearing to make a white power symbol at a George Floyd protest Saturday in New York City has prompted an internal review. Read on for…

March 27, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 An apparent white supremacist suspected of plotting to attack a Missouri hospital caring for coronavirus patients was killed during a shootout with FBI agents, authorities said Wednesday. Brenton Tarrant, the man accused of killing 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand last year, has pleaded guilty. The Attorney General of New York has launched a hotline for people to report hate crimes and biased incidents against Asian-Americans…

February 21, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 At least nine people were killed when a white supremacist opened fire at a hookah bar and other sites in Hanau, Germany. A religiously observant teenage table tennis star, who observes the Jewish sabbath, will be unable to participate in upcoming Olympic trials because the event partially falls on a Saturday. ADL has called on the annual carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst to withdraw the antisemitic caricatures which – as in previous years …

January 16, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 With the assistance of ADL’s Center on Extremism, an alleged neo-Nazi was arrested on Friday for his apparent role in a nationwide swatting campaign. In testimony before a House subcommittee, ADL’s CEO urged Congress to take action to curb online hate speech, if the social media companies continue to fail to do so. In an effort to label Democrats as sympathetic toward Iran, President Trump retweeted an Islamophobic and doctored image of…

December 30, 2019 A Hanukkah party on December 28, 2019 in Monsey, New York, was shattered when a man entered a local rabbi’s home armed with a large knife and began stabbing people. The attack left five injured, one critically. The following day, police in Ramapo, New York, charged Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake, New York, with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Thomas pleaded not guilty at his December 29 arraignment. On Monday, December 30,…

December 13, 2019 THE WEEK'S BIG 3 Two gunmen motivated by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs attacked a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City on Tuesday, killing four people. President Trump signed an executive order that would ensure incidents of anti-Semitism be treated under federal as vigorously as other forms of discrimination. West Virginia fired three state employees and suspended more than 30 others after a photo surfaced showing a recent graduating class of correctional…

Update: Just days after Unite the Right’s 2nd anniversary, white supremacist and Charlottesville attendee James Patrick Reardon Jr., of New Middletown, Ohio, was arrested for allegedly making threats to the Youngstown, Ohio, Jewish community center. Reardon was charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing for allegedly posting an Instagram video of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the background. The video was captioned, &ldquo…

December 13, 2018 On December 9, a group of eight individuals associated with the racist skinhead movement were arrested in Lynnwood, Washington, for allegedly assaulting and shouting racial slurs at the DJ at the Rec Room Bar. The DJ, a black man, was reportedly punched and stomped on during the altercation. Each of the eight individuals faces malicious harassment hate crime charges for their alleged role in the assault. Those charged in the assault include Travis David Condor of…

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 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…

October 27, 2018 The last post made to the social networking account believed to belong to Robert Bowers, the suspect in Saturday’s deadly shooting spree at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, claimed that “HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders in that kill our people.  I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.  Screw your optics, I’m going in.”  The post, made just a short time before the attack on the…

October 27, 2018 Extremists reacted quickly and vocally to Saturday’s shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue. Some celebrated the killings as “another holiday to add to the calendar,” others blamed the Jewish community for inciting the violence and praising the apparent perpetrator for his decisive action. Still others bemoaned the media coverage of the “false flag” distraction from the incoming “caravan” of Central American immigrants and refugees. …

October 27, 2018 According to police and media reports, Robert Bowers allegedly entered the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh on Saturday morning, yelling, “All Jews Must Die” as he opened fire. As of Saturday evening, the death toll stood at 11, and several people remained hospitalized. A profile on Gab – a social media site frequented by right-wing extremists – which appears to belong to Bowers, showcases his virulent anti-Semitism. The vast majority of…

July 14, 2016   It has been a rough summer as the topic of guns, violence, police and bias scream across the news headlines and our smart phones. Still reeling from the June 12 massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, a few short weeks later we watched on video the back-to-back shooting deaths by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, MN.  Just a day later, as cities across the country engaged in protests over these…

June 22, 2015   As we grieve, protest and further investigate the horrific murder of nine African American parishioners at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, many people are asking: What should we tell the children? Parents, family members and others are sometimes uneasy about discussing issues of violence and injustice with children because they want to protect them from terrible and scary topics. However, it is important that children have a language for…