February 02, 2022 Spotify is in hot water for its support of controversial podcaster Joe Rogan. In January 2022, a group of 270 medical professionals wrote an open letter to the company accusing Rogan of spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic, calling him “a menace to public health.” Soon after, legendary rocker Neil Young demanded that the company either remove his music or stop airing the podcast because it promotes false information about Covid-19 vaccines. The…

January 27, 2022 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Nearly 100 candidates for political office and politicians across the country are increasingly embracing extremist talking points, endorsing hateful campaigns and promoting conspiracy theories, according to a new report from ADL. A Tennessee school board voted to remove "Maus," a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, from the district's curriculum after officials objected to instances of profanity and an image of a nude woman. A white…

January 25, 2022 Oregon State Rep. candidate Dan Tooze wearing hat with Proud Boy symbol (Source: Telegram) The American political landscape one year after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol reflects the yawning divides highlighted on that violent day and reveals the extent to which extremist beliefs have become part of the mainstream. As the 2022 midterm election campaigns kick into high gear, ADL’s Center on Extremism is tracking more than 100 problematic political…

January 20, 2022 1. Los judíos son la comunidad religiosa más atacada en Estados Unidos. Según los datos anuales del FBI sobre delitos de odio, definidos como delitos criminales motivados por prejuicios, los delitos contra la comunidad judía constituyen más de la mitad de todos los delitos basados en la religión. El número de delitos de odio contra los judíos ha oscilado entre 600 y 1.200 al año desde que el FBI comenzó…

January 20, 2022 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The Jewish community is once again on high alert and calling for action after a gunman stormed a synagogue during Shabbat services in Colleyville, Texas, holding four hostages for over 11 hours before the rabbi and congregants were able to escape. Stewart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group the Oath Keepers, and 10 other individuals were charged with "seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes" related to the breach of the Capitol on…

January 19, 2022 Sovereign citizen guru Bobby Lawrence appeared on QAnon conspiracy theorist Ann Vandersteel's show, SteelTruth, on June 1, 2021, where he discussed how to become an American State National. Source: Rumble More than a year after Q’s final post and the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., a small but growing number of QAnon adherents are openly embracing the beliefs of the anti-government extremist sovereign citizen movement. From…

January 17, 2022   1. Jews are consistently the most targeted religious community in the U.S. According to the FBI’s annual data on hate crimes, defined as criminal offenses which are motivated by bias, crimes targeting the Jewish community consistently constitute over half of all religion-based crimes. The number of hate crimes against Jews has ranged between 600 and 1,200 each year since the FBI began collecting data in the 1990s. There were 683 hate crimes against Jews in…

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 16, 2022 Note: This article was originally published on Medium on July 14, 2021. By Farahnaz Ispahani and Johnnie Moore “Did we make atomic bombs to show them in a museum? We don’t need missiles, atomic bombs or a huge army if they can’t be used to liberate Palestine,” said the member of parliament amidst the 11 day conflict between the State of Israel and Hamas terrorists last month. Exactly what you’d expect coming from the Islamic Republic…

January 14, 2022 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Nearly six months after being nominated by President Biden to serve as the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, Deborah Lipstadt, renowned Holocaust scholar, has yet to be confirmed due to efforts by some in the Senate who have complained that she criticized some of them on Twitter. An Indiana state legislator who last week said teachers should be “impartial” when teaching about Nazism and fascism is now backtracking from his…

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…