September 02, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3The number of hate crimes in the United States rose to the highest level in 12 years, propelled by increasing assaults targeting Black and Asian victims, the FBI reported Monday. White supremacist and anti-government extremists have expressed admiration for the Taliban, a worrying development for US officials grappling with the threat of domestic violent extremism. More than 70 State Department officials sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State…

August 10, 2021 July 2021: The statue of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee, a putative impetus for the Unite the Right Rally, was quietly removed from its pedestal in Charlottesville. Image credit: Rev Seth Wispelwey Four years ago, on August 12, 2017, hundreds of far-right extremists descended on Charlottesville to protest the planned removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the city’s center. “Unite the Right” was the largest and most violent public assembly of white…

August 06, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 ADL and Hillel International announced they are working together to play a stronger role in fighting antisemitism on campus. Antisemitic content is proving to be a persistent problem across social media as major platforms fail to protect Jewish targets, according to a new report that gives Facebook and many others low grades. ADL criticized remarks from US Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) as a problematic “dog whistle” when she alleged…

August 02, 2021 Photo credit: Walmart On August 3, 2019, white supremacist Patrick Crusius murdered 23 individuals and injured 23 more at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in the deadliest attack on Latinos in modern American history. Two years later, animosity towards Latino-Americans and immigrants remains at dangerous levels. Crusius traveled roughly 10 hours to reach the El Paso Walmart, and posted a manifesto highlighting his premeditated and purposeful targeting of Latinos,…

July 29, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3PayPal is partnering with ADL to investigate how extremist and hate movements in the U.S. take advantage of financial platforms to fund their criminal activities. A swastika was found carved into an elevator at the State Department, prompting President Biden to speak out. Unilever’s CEO wrote a letter to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt in which they made clear the company will continue to do business in Israel despite its subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s…

July 27, 2021 New IFB pastors (left to right) Joe Jones, Steven Anderson, Roger Jimenez, Aaron Thompson, Bruce Mejia, and Jonathan Shelley at the 2021 Red Hot Preaching Conference in Sacramento, CA. (source: Facebook) The New Independent Fundamental Baptist (New IFB) movement held its sixth annual Red Hot Preaching Conference on July 15–18, 2021. The conference, hosted by Pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, CA, showcased the vitriolic anti-LGBTQ+ and…

July 09, 2021 By David Andrew Weinberg On June 30th, Egypt’s government launched the region’s largest book fair, under the patronage of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and inaugurated by Egypt’s prime minister with seven of his cabinet ministers in attendance. Despite the issue being flagged in the past, it is disappointing that a broad array of antisemitic books continue to be exhibited among the materials hosted at Egypt’s state-run book fair this year, including…

July 09, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Police say scores of members of a white supremacist group marched in Philadelphia over the weekend, clashing with pedestrians and setting off what were believed to be smoke bombs at one point. The group of 11 militiamen who ended up in an hours-long standoff with police in Massachusetts on Saturday morning espouses a conspiracy-based, anti-government agenda that combines sovereign-citizen beliefs with those of the Moorish Science Temple. A rabbi is…

June 11, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3  Antisemitic incidents more than doubled in May compared to last year following Mideast violence, according to new data from ADL. Online antisemitism grew significantly during the pandemic, with COVID-19 ushering in “a new wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories and hate in Europe,” the European Commission said in a report issued last week. Four members of the same family were killed in a pickup truck attack in London, Ontario in what…

June 09, 2021 In the past month, the American Jewish community has been under increased threat of violence and harassment. Early data from ADL suggests antisemitic incidents have increased significantly, both online and offline, after the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians returned to the national spotlight. We wanted to follow up on the survey we conducted earlier this year of Jewish Americans to learn about their experiences with antisemitism, online and off, to help determine…