ADL, OneTable, and Passages Israel to Launch 'A Light in the City'
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September 20, 2024 – As antisemitism reaches unprecedented levels in the United States, ADL (Anti-Defamation League), OneTable, and Passages Israel are working to build bridges between the Jewish and Christian communities through shared experiences and dialogue. Their joint initiative, “A Light in the City,” aims to foster friendship and understanding by hosting Shabbat dinners in four key cities. The pilot program, to take place in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York…
The State of Play on Campus: A Disturbing Rise in Antisemitism that Demands a Full Scale Response
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The Jewish community faced unthinkable tragedy on October 7th, when the terrorist group Hamas committed mass atrocities against thousands of Israelis, including murder, torture, dismemberment and rape. As the global Jewish community mourns our collective trauma, one could imagine a world in which Jewish students were comforted on campus with supportive words, candlelight vigils, and an understanding community mobilizing to support their needs. Instead, increasing numbers of Jewish students…
Moroccan Textbooks Teach Appreciation of Jewish Life and Tolerance in the Kingdom
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By Carole Nuriel and Aykan Erdemir
An examination of textbooks used in the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades of Moroccan state schools during the 2021-2022 school year indicate that tolerance and diversity are core to the curriculum promoted across Moroccan society. The excerpts on Judaism and Jews that Morocco’s Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training provided to ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) show that the country’s elementary school textbooks depict Jews as an…
Scapegoating of Jews for the 1969 Al-Aqsa Arson Continued as Usual in 2022
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August 21 marked the 53rd anniversary of the 1969 al-Aqsa Mosque arson and the ongoing disinformation campaigns scapegoating Jews and Israel for the attack. Although Israeli authorities promptly arrested, tried, and convicted the culprit, Denis Michael Rohan – a Protestant extremist from Australia who believed his actions would prompt the Second Coming of Jesus – Middle Eastern outlets have been publishing inaccurate reports of the event to this day. In a blog published last month,…
Middle Eastern Media Needs to Stop Blaming Jews for the 1969 Al-Aqsa Arson
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August 21 marks the 53rd anniversary of a terrible attack against an Islamic holy site, when a Protestant extremist from Australia named Denis Michael Rohan set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, destroying large parts of the site and irreplaceable artifacts.
Rohan’s crime should rightly be widely condemned and the loss commemorated even five-plus decades later. It is important to note that Rohan, who believed his actions would prompt the Second Coming of Jesus, was…
ADL, Religious Scholars Work with Oberammergau to Remove Anti-Semitism from its renowned Passion Play
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by: Rabbi David Sandmel January 21, 2020 Update: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oberammergau Passion Play has been postponed until 2022.
In 1634, the residents of the picturesque village of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps made a vow to perform a passion play every ten years as a sign of their gratitude to God for having been spared from a deadly plague. Today the Oberammergau Passion Play is performed every ten years, in years ending in zero, and will also be performed in 2034 …
It's Time for Congress to Restore the Voting Rights Act
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June 25, 2019 UPDATE: On June 26th, ADL submitted this statement urging passage of the Voting Rights Advancement Act as part of House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties hearings entitled “Continuing Challenges to the Voting Rights Act Since Shelby County v. Holder.
This week marks six years since the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation…
DoED Decision Will Require Taxpayers to Fund Discrimination
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March 20, 2019 The U.S. Department of Education (DoED) recently announced that it will ignore a longstanding requirement of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) limiting federally funded contracts, which provide schools with services such as special education or instruction, to secular vendors. As a result, religious organizations, including houses of worship, are now eligible to be such contractors. This decision is not legally required, will compel taxpayers to fund…
Building a "Third Narrative" with Black and Jewish Religious Leaders in Israel
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January 07, 2019 By Rabbi David Fox Sandmel | ADL Director of Interreligious Engagement
I have traveled to Israel and the Palestinian territories a number of times with interfaith groups, including Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals and Muslims, among them some African-Americans. A recent trip that brought together rabbis and African-American pastors from around the country, however, was different because the African-American experience and Black-Jewish relations framed the entire…
ADL Summit Inspires Young Leaders to Take #ActionToImpact
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May 10, 2017 More than 500 ADL leaders and Jewish activists from across the country gathered for ADL’s annual Shana Amy Glass National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., where government officials, policy experts, journalists, opinion makers and other public figures addressed the participants on some of the most critical issues on the League’s agenda.
ADL CEO's Opening Remarks: Action to Impact
To kick off the Summit, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt gave a rousing…
Interfaith Dialogue: A Jew and a Muslim Discuss the Spate of Hate Crimes in Aftermath of 2016 Election
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December 21, 2016 Editor’s Note:A Muslim academic and a Jewish interfaith rabbi recently sat down together for a discussion about the spate of hate crimes that have taken place in the aftermath of the 2016 election campaign and what can happen with Jews and Muslims work together to combat hate speech.
The following conversation between Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Institute at Manhattan College, and Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious…
by: Lorraine Array March 23, 2015
Recent incidents around the world remind us of the power of hate and vitriol to permeate our religious, cultural and national borders. ISIS continues to expand its alliances and fear-mongering tactics. The world is in many ways paralyzed to see a way forward, and the need for solutions capable of building bridges of understanding and respect has never been greater.
In this spirit, in early 2013, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Connecticut Office…
Bring Malala, Ferguson, Unaccompanied Minors and Ebola into the Classroom
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by: Oren Segal December 17, 2014 Malala. Ferguson. Immigration. Ebola. Voter ID Laws. Climate Change. These are just a few of the topics teachers are regularly and actively bringing into their classrooms.
Whether they teach English, Social Studies, Advisory or another subject and whether they have five minutes or decide to do a week- long study, teachers know that topics in the news will engage and interest students in a deep and meaningful way. Research…
Beyond Ferguson and Staten Island: Where Do We Go From Here?
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by: Oren Segal December 05, 2014 In the wake of two grand jury decisions—in Ferguson, MO and Staten Island, NY—not to indict the police officers who were involved in the killing of black men, the time has come to ask ourselves: Where do we go from here? There are a myriad of ideas and legislation on the table--diversity training for the police, funding to provide body cameras for police officers and legislation to tighten standards on military-style equipment for local police…