July 31, 2020 On August 3, 2019, white supremacist Patrick Crusius’ deadly shooting spree at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, took the lives of 23 people and injured 23 more, making it one of the deadliest domestic terror attacks and deadliest hate crimes in U.S. history. It was also the most horrific attack against the Hispanic community in the U.S. in modern memory.
In the twelve months since El Paso, right-wing extremists have not carried out any deadly mass shooting attacks –…
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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 16, 2020 On June 15, 2020, a federal grand jury indicted Matthew Patrick Slatzer of Canton, Ohio, on weapons charges. Slatzer, a known neo-Nazi, was arrested in February after bringing a gun into a Canton bar, and was charged with possession of a firearm by a person with a domestic violence conviction.
The investigation began after Slatzer -- who, according to police reports, was wearing a sword and hatchet on his belt -- entered a business in Stow, Ohio, on May 3, 2020. He allegedly…
Echoes & Reflections
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening In this unit, students learn about the origins of antisemitism and how this hatred was exploited by the Nazis during the 1920s and 1930s as part of their racist ideology. Students define the terms antisemitism and stereotype, review text and video sources, and create a timeline reflecting examples of antisemitism throughout history. Students will…
June 10, 2020 Some vocal extremists are showing up at the ongoing protests over the murder of George Floyd and police brutality. The extremists, who subscribe to a range of right wing ideologies, do not appear to be following any overarching plan or strategy, and are turning up at protests of all sizes, nationwide.
Some who share the protesters’ opposition to law enforcement and government are joining the demonstrations. Others, carrying weapons, are acting as self-appointed security…
May 22, 2020 On May 1, 2020, when boogaloo activists organized a protest against coronavirus public safety measures in Raleigh, North Carolina, many attendees carried firearms in defiance of state laws prohibiting guns at public demonstrations. It was a scene played out across the country in recent weeks, as boogalooers are energized by resistance to lockdown restrictions, which they view as tyrannical government overreach. Boogaloo adherents have shown up at numerous lockdown protests, waving…
Echoes & Reflections: Teaching the HolocaustGRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language The lessons in this unit increase students’ understanding of Jewish people and awareness that antisemitism did not end after the Holocaust, and provide them with opportunities to learn about the persistence of antisemitism in its contemporary forms. Students investigate the ways in which old ideas about Jews and Judaism have…
April 21, 2020 Headline: Coronavirus: Anti-Immigration, Xenophobia and Homophobia
Short description: Extremists are using fear of the virus to stoke nativist, homophobic hate
As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame and misinformation, making it more difficult to access accurate information while elevating fear and anxiety. While some of these…
April 20, 2020
As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame 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.
Conspiracy theorists are positing that the coronavirus was manufactured by humans,…
April 20, 2020 Americans’ response to the coronavirus pandemic now includes a spate of nationwide rallies decrying stay-at-home orders and calling for “reopening” the economy. While many of the protests calling for the reopening of the economy and the lifting of state-issued quarantine mandates have been organized by more mainstream conservative organizations, a number have been sponsored in whole or part by identified extremists and a range of rally participants have carried…
April 20, 2020 As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame 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.
ADL is tracking some of the coronavirus-related anti-Asian incidents here.
Sinophobia
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April 17, 2020
As the coronavirus continues to surge globally, virus-related conspiracy theories are proliferating online. These antisemitic, xenophobic, hateful messages spread misplaced blame 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.
Extremists are imagining weaponizing the coronavirus
On fringe platforms, extremists…
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…
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…
January 13, 2020 UPDATE: On March 15, 2021, John William Kirby Kelley was sentenced to 33 months in prison for his role in numerous swatting attacks targeting journalists, a Virginia university, a historic predominantly Black church in Virginia, an Islamic Center in Arlington, Texas, and a former U.S. Cabinet member.
On January 10, 2020, federal authorities arrested 19-year-old John William Kirby Kelley of Vienna, Virginia, for his alleged role in a multi…
November 05, 2019
Update: February 26, 2021: A federal court sentenced Richard Holzer to 19.5 years in prison.
Update: October 15, 2020: The Justice Department announced that Richard Holzer, 28, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and explosives charges for plotting to blow up the Temple Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado. According to a DOJ press release, Holzer faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the hate crime charge…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, Language Does Entertainment Represent Our Increasingly Diverse Society?In recent years, we have seen some progress made in terms of the diversity and representation of characters and actors we see in movies and on television. For example, over the last sixteen years, the percentage of Asian characters with speaking roles increased from 3.4% to 15.9%. However, there is still much…
Echoes & Reflections is dedicated to reshaping the way that teachers and students understand, process, and navigate the world through the events of the Holocaust. We partner with educators to help them introduce students to the complex themes of the Holocaust and to understand its lasting effect on the world. GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening This unit provides an opportunity for students to explore Jewish…
May 13, 2021 Over the past 25 years, numerous white supremacists have targeted the Jewish community in the U.S. through terrorist acts, conspiracies and plots. Here is a selection of significant incidents from 1994 through 2021.
Assumption, Illinois, 2020: Federal agents charged Randall Burrus with weapons offenses in connection with an alleged white supremacist plot to attack a synagogue or mosque. This is linked to the April 15, 2020 incident involving John Michael Rathbun in…
New York, NY, July 15, 2019 … The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) today condemned President Trump’s racist tweets about four U.S. congresswomen, in which he said they should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” and his defense of these remarks by saying the congresswomen hate Israel and are anti-Semitic.
“As Jews, we are all too familiar with this kind of divisive prejudice,” said Jonathan…