January 16, 2022 On Saturday, January 15, 2022, a gunman entered Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, during services, taking three congregants and a rabbi as hostages. The standoff ended more than ten hours later with all hostages released, apparently unharmed, and the alleged perpetrator, identified as 44-year-old British national Malik Faisal Akram, dead. The synagogue was streaming its service on Facebook when the perpetrator entered the building and the initial period of…

January 12, 2022 Latin American countries have struggled to keep up with economic pressures, which had started prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and were exacerbated by the health crisis. Furthermore, political polarization seems to have permeated across the region with elections that appear to favor populist far left and far right candidates. What will this all mean for the Jewish communities in the region in 2022?           The Jewish…

December 20, 2021 Banners dropped in California December 18-19, 2021 In a nationwide display of bigotry and hate during the weekend of December 18-19, 2021, individuals associated with the antisemitic Goyim Defense League (GDL) distributed propaganda in multiple states, while people supporting the “White Lives Matter” movement distributed propaganda and held roadside flash demonstrations in several states. Some people participated in both efforts. The distribution of…

December 16, 2021 In the wake of a deadly SUV incident in Waukesha, Wis., white supremacists are leveraging the tragedy by sowing racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories on the ground and online. On November 21, 2021, Darrell E. Brooks Jr. allegedly drove his SUV into a crowded Christmas parade, killing six and injuring over 60 others. While a harrowing tragedy, Waukesha Police Chief Daniel Thompson said Brooks was apparently fleeing a domestic disturbance and declared the incident …

Mohammed El-Kurd is a prominent Palestinian activist hired in 2021 as the Palestine Correspondent by the left-wing magazine The Nation. He has published articles and been interviewed in a wide array of media. Unfortunately, even a cursory analysis of his social media and his book “Rifqa” reveals an indisputably troubling pattern of rhetoric and slander that ranges far beyond reasoned criticism of Israel. It is unvarnished, vicious antisemitism. El-Kurd has accused Israelis of…

December 15, 2021 Gab CEO Andrew Torba claims he’s not an antisemite, but he tells a very different story via Gab’s Twitter feed and his personal Gab account. In October 2021, Torba engaged in multiple antisemitic tirades on Twitter and Gab, posting and sharing a wide array of bigoted content. These posts – which had the potential to reach millions of people via Gab’s 390,000 Twitter followers and Torba’s 3.3 million Gab followers – promoted a range of…

December 09, 2021 In August 2021, Instagram announced an update to its work against the spread of abuse on the platform, reiterating a zero tolerance policy for hate speech and abusive content, and adding new features aimed at reducing abuse, especially as it occurs via direct messaging (DM) and comments. Despite this update – and a previous iteration in February, 2021 – extremist content remains easily accessible on Instagram. ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) researchers…

December 01, 2021 A vehicle allegedly driven by Darrell E. Brooks Jr. speeds through the Waukesha Christmas parade route on November 21, as captured on the city’s livestream video of the event. (source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) Darrell Edward Brooks Jr., who faces six counts of first-degree intentional homicide after he drove into a Christmas Parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, apparently shared several conspiracy theory-themed social media posts in 2015, according to a review of his…

December 01, 2021 UPDATE: As of December 9, 2021, Facebook has removed all nine posts reported on the platform in conjunction with our research.  October 2021 marked one year since Facebook banned Holocaust denial from its platform and officially classified Holocaust denial as hate speech instead of misinformation. On the first anniversary of this policy’s enactment on Facebook properties, analysts in ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) sought to determine whether the…

November 29, 2021 Photo credit: Getty On November 23, 2021, a jury returned its verdicts in the civil lawsuit against the organizers of the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. All defendants were found liable of Virginia state civil conspiracy charges, and the jury agreed to award the plaintiffs more than $25 million in damages. Jurors were unable to reach a decision on federal conspiracy charges. Sines v. Kessler, the civil suit filed by…

November 19, 2021 On Friday, November 19, 2021, a jury delivered a unanimous verdict in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse: not guilty on all five counts, which included homicide and reckless endangerment. The presiding judge warned those in the courtroom against expressions of emotion, but right-wing extremists were bound by no such restrictions, and they reacted online to the ruling with praise for Rittenhouse, vitriol towards “antifa” and the left, and excitement about the…