At ADL, we monitor extremism and misinformation regularly as part of our work fighting hate. As is the case with many legacy organizations, there is a fair amount of misinformation spread about who ADL is and the reality of the work we do. To help stop the spread of this misinformation, below are responses to some of the most egregious claims. Claim: ADL supports racist, militarized policing Fact: ADL opposes racist or militarized policing and has a long and documented history of…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | April 06, 2020 The Times of Israel As the Jewish community prepares for Passover under quarantine, I’m reflecting on how this moment is so profoundly difficult for so many Jewish families as we head into the holidays. The coronavirus pandemic has not only upended the lives and livelihoods of people everywhere, but it is going to have a profound effect on Jewish families preparing for the celebration of Passover, which begins on the night of Wednesday, April…

A Hebrew version of this article originally appeared in Makor Rishon on June 10th. by: Carole Nuriel | July 23, 2019 It has been more than three weeks since the earthquake that rocked Israel in wake of the shooting of Israeli-Ethiopian teenager Solomon Tekah by an off-duty police officer. The national debate that began with an emphasis on the details of the shooting incident has since turned into a discourse on the image of Israeli society – who we are and how we relate to the other…

July 12, 2019 Dear Chairman Cummings and Ranking Member Jordan: We write to provide the views of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) in advance of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the “Trump Administration’s Child Separation Policy: Substantiated Allegations of Mistreatment.” Since our founding in 1913, ADL’s mission has been to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all. We represent a…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 17, 2018 The Hill Members of Congress and the Administration, faced with a wave of immigration and fears that the immigrants would endanger national security, passed a series of laws establishing entry quotas. Their goal was to severely restrict immigration to the U.S. To stem the influx of immigrants from Mexico, the government also launched an operation to force their return, fanning agents across Texas and the Southwest to identify undocumented…

By Melissa Garlick | ADL's National Civil Rights Counsel October 03, 2018 JTA Closing America’s doors to the “tired” and “poor” yearning for freedom is at the heart of the new reported proposal by the Trump administration. The proposal would make it more difficult for immigrants to come to this country, or obtain visas or green cards, if they or members of their household have ever used public welfare programs. The promise of the Statue of Liberty is…

Remarks, as delivered, to the NAACP Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas July 16, 2018 Remarks as delivered Thank you, Gary, and good morning, NAACP! It is so great for me to be here with you today.  You know, two months ago, my friend –  and your President and CEO –  Derrick Johnson, addressed the Anti-Defamation League at our National Leadership Summit in Washington D.C. in a room a lot like this. And in a speech no one on our side will soon forget,…

By Jonathan Greenblatt | ADL CEO and National Director and Dan Meridor | Former Deputy Prime Minister of Israel April 16, 2018 The Jerusalem Post About two weeks ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made the surprising and welcome announcement that Israel had reached an agreement with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on the issue of the African asylum seekers. And, just as surprisingly, he announced a few hours later that the plan was suspended, and within a day, canceled. …

by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | February 09, 2017 Your Holiness, This week, in synagogues all over the world, Jews will read Shirat Ha-yam, the “Song of the Sea” from the book of Exodus that Miriam, Moses and the Israelites sang after they miraculously passed through the Sea of Reeds on dry land. As a newly free people, they expressed their thanks to God for their redemption, saying: Who is like you, o eternal, among the…

by: Rabbi David Sandmel | June 05, 2016 The Times of Israel The General Conference of United Methodist Church recently concluded its quadrennial gathering, which this year was held in Portland, Oregon. I and many others in the Jewish community, not to mention many Christians as well, were pleased with the outcome of a number of votes on resolutions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Inter alia, the Church rejected resolutions calling for divestment or for investment screens…

by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | October 27, 2015 PBS - Religion & Ethics Newsweekly The promulgation, on October 28, 1965, of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions, may be the most important moment is post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian relations and interfaith relations writ large. In its fourth chapter, Nostra Aetate effectively overturned centuries of what the noted French Jewish historian…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | February 26, 2014 The Huffington Post   Ten years ago, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" film was released amid a swirl of controversy and after a relentless public relations campaign playing up the director's celebrity status and his adamant refusal to change the film amid concerns of insensitivity and anti-Semitism. Gibson's "Passion" was a passion of hate. His film bought into all of the troubling representations of the Passion that fortified church-based…

November 18, 2013 CHANGING HEARTS AND MINDS A dynamic young leader in the immigration reform movement, Lorella Praeli first met ADL after she was bullied in school. My first exposure to ADL was just after graduating from middle school in Connecticut. I’d gone through a really ugly experience with cyberbullying at a time when no one knew what to do about it, plus I had my own self-doubts about being a Latina with a disability. The training for ADL’s Names Can Really Hurt Us program…

July 12, 2013 The Anti-Defamation League commends the International Council of Christian and Jews (ICCJ) for its comprehensive statement about the Israel-Palestinian conflict, which calls on religious institutions and groups to refrain from issuing one-sided declarations in attempting to promote a resolution to the dispute.  The statement by ICCJ, one of the world’s oldest and most respected international Christian-Jewish organizations, urges religious bodies and leaders to recommit…

by: By Abraham H. Foxman | April 18, 2013 The Huffington Post One of the first things Argentinian native Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio did after being elected pope on March 13 was to send a message of friendship to Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni -- and, by extension, the Jewish people. "I sincerely hope to be able to contribute to the progress that relations between Jews and Catholics have enjoyed since the Second Vatican Council," wrote Cardinal Bergoglio, who took the name Pope Francis…

January 02, 2013 Q. What is the basis for ADL's concerns about Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"?A. We first learned about Mr. Gibson's plans to make a film based on the final hours of Jesus' life in a New York Times Magazine article that appeared in February 2003. An early version of the script was shared with us. In August 2003, an ADL representative saw a rough cut in Houston. On January 21, we saw a version of the film at a screening in Orlando, Florida. We had hoped to see the film…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | July 11, 2007 Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) – With anti-Semitism resurgent in the world, one of the encouraging elements for the Jewish people, particularly if one is to compare things today to the 1930s and 1940s, is the remarkable change in the Catholic Church's attitudes toward Jews. In the past four decades, a conceptual revolution has taken place in the church's relationship with the Jewish people. The first step came with Vatican II and its…