ADL Articles

March 19, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 A new report from ADL finds that as the coronavirus continues to surge globally, antisemitic, xenophobic, and hateful messages and conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic are proliferating rapidly online. Lawmakers were condemned for repeatedly referring to the coronavirus as the “Chinese virus”, a term deemed by many as bigoted and scientifically inaccurate. And the thought-leader behind the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division…

March 17, 2020 As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, antisemitic, xenophobic, and hateful messages and conspiracy theories are proliferating rapidly online. These messages spread hate and misinformation, making it more difficult to access accurate information while elevating fear and anxiety. While some of these messages are new, many are simply old tropes repackaged for a modern pandemic. The coronavirus is a tool for Jews to expand their global influence Many antisemitic conspiracy…

March 17, 2020 On February 5, 2020, Jefferson County, Alabama deputies arrested Preston Cheyenne Johnson, a white supremacist from Addison, Alabama, for the murder of police officer Nick O’Rear of Kimberly, Alabama. Johnson is accused of killing officer O’Rear while fleeing from police. The police chase began when an officer in Warrior, Alabama started pursuing an erratic driver. According to testimony given during a March 5 preliminary hearing, Johnson, who was inside the…

March 16, 2020 Introduction Online platforms have enabled white supremacist groups to tap into a global community, amplifying their racist views and connecting them with like-minded individuals. While online activities help unify far-flung adherents, real-world connections outside these virtual platforms indicate a true commitment to their cause. Increasingly, this real-world action is taking place on an international stage. American white supremacists are traveling abroad to…

March 13, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 A guide to contemporary antisemitism was released this week by ADL and disseminated to political candidates running for national office. At a rally for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, a white supremacist unfurled a Nazi flag and performed a Nazi salute before being escorted off the premises. And a host on Fox News conjured up an antisemitic trope in his description of Michael Bloomberg as a “puppet master” controlling fellow…

March 10, 2020 “Finally! Science has discovered a cure for the most insidious disease of our time…Jewishness.” Shortly after posting this to Telegram, referring to a news report that three Israelis had been quarantined as possible carriers of the coronavirus, the same poster wrote, “3 down, 5,999,997 to go!” As the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus surges globally, extremists continue to use the virus  to advance their bigotry and antisemitism…

March 06, 2020 White supremacist Robert Sterkeson interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Thursday, March 5, 2020, rally in Phoenix, Arizona, when he waved a Nazi flag behind Sanders. Fellow rally attendees quickly pulled the flag from Sterkeson’s hands, and security teams removed him from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Sterkeson, of Glendale, Arizona, is a self-described “stunt activist” who has harassed a range of Jewish and…

March 05, 2020 Anti-Israel activism at the March 2020 AIPAC conference was tainted by antisemitism when disparate groups from across the ideological spectrum held protests outside the annual meeting. The most prominent organization present was the extreme anti-Israel activist group Al Awda, which has a history of promoting antisemitism and expressing support for terrorism. Al Awda collaborated with the fringe anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox Jewish group Neturei Karta. Meanwhile, members of…

March 04, 2020 Two speeches delivered by Louis Farrakhan as part of the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day celebration included expressions of homophobia, transphobia, anti-white racism, and antisemitism. In his speeches, which took place in Detroit on February 23 and in Chicago on March 1, 2020, Farrakhan also claimed that the biblical descriptions of Jesus as the messiah were actually referring to Farrakhan himself. Farrakhan sees himself as a Christ-like figure and a prophet…

February 27, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Far-right extremists killed at least 38 people in the U.S. in 2019, the sixth deadliest year on record violence by all domestic extremists since 1970, according to a new report. Federal prosecutors charged five people allegedly linked to a neo-Nazi group for engaging in a campaign to intimidate and harass journalists, activists and a member of the President’s cabinet. Calling AIPAC a platform “for leaders who express bigotry,”…

February 26, 2020 On February 26, 2020, authorities arrested five members of Atomwaffen Division, including former Texas state Atomwaffen leader John Cameron Denton. These are just the latest detentions targeting the neo-Nazi group, whose active membership has been decimated in the last two years by a steady stream of federal charges and arrests. Denton is charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, and interstate threats to injure, stemming from his alleged role…

February 25, 2020 By David Andrew Weinberg, ADL's Washington Director for International Affairs Intentionally or not, U.S. allied governments across the Arab world are providing a stamp of legitimacy for hateful anti-Semitic books of the absolute worst kind.  After an intensive review of offerings at state-run book fairs in the Arab world, ADL has determined that the vast majority of such events have provided a platform for egregiously anti-Semitic reading materials, among other…

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 …

February 20, 2020 On February 19, 2020, Tobias Rathjen, a 43-year-old German man, allegedly shot and killed nine people at two shisha (hookah) bars in the German city of Hanau, near Frankfurt. Police discovered Rathjen and his mother shot to death in their home.  Based on Rathjen’s manifesto and the targeting of locations frequented by non-white migrants, Germany’s Federal Prosecutor's Office has linked the attack to far-right extremism.  In remarks following…

February 13, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Incidents of white supremacist propaganda jumped by more than 120% in the U.S. last year, according to ADL’s latest research. The U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) published a list of companies that conduct business in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which critics are calling a blacklist. And an MSNBC host is under fire after suggesting that supporters of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders are part of a “digital brownshirt brigade…

February 13, 2020 Last month, the Trump Administration proposed sweeping changes to federal rules governing taxpayer-funded social services, changes that threaten the religious freedom of the most vulnerable in our nation. Over 20 years ago, the federal government made a sea change in how it provided taxpayer-funded social services by allowing houses of worship to compete for grants and contracts through a program called the “Faith-Based Initiative.”  This change…

February 11, 2020 Click here to view a PDF version of this blog. ADL’s Center on Extremism tracked an ever-growing number of white supremacist propaganda efforts in 2019, including the distribution of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ fliers, stickers, banners and posters. The 2019 data shows an increase of incidents both on and off campus, with a total of 2,713 cases reported (averaging more than seven incidents per day), compared to 1,214 in 2018 – a doubling in activity…

February 11, 2020 On February 10, 2020, U.S. Army Specialist Jarrett William Smith pleaded guilty to unlawfully distributing instructions for making explosive devices over social media. According to the Department of Justice announcement, Smith pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing information related to explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction.  Smith was associated with the neo-Nazi organization Feuerkrieg Division at the time of his arrest. The ADL's…