January 27, 2014 Read the full report here: Lyndon LaRouche, Holocaust Imagery & the Health Care Debate (PDF). Conspiracy theorist Lyndon LaRouche, leader of a fringe political cult that defies categorization, and his supporters have contributed to the divisiveness surrounding the public debate on health care reform by producing and disseminating materials comparing President Barack Obama and other government officials to Hitler, Nazis and fascists, and by attending Congressional "town…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | January 27, 2014 South Florida Sun-Sentinel On this day 69 years ago, soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front pried open the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau and were greeted as liberators by the 7,000 or so emaciated prisoners who were among the walking dead remaining within the camp at war's end. The liberation of Auschwitz — that chamber of horrors where more than a million Jews from across Europe were consigned to death in the gas chambers —…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | January 27, 2014 New York Daily News Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the Jan. 27 anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where more than 1 million Jews were killed in the Nazi gas chambers. The deaths at Auschwitz and dozens of other death camps across Europe were the tragic culmination of the theories of racial superiority and anti-Semitism Adolf Hitler set forth as early as his notorious 1925 autobiographical manifesto…

January 24, 2014 In recent years, some in the anti-Israel movement have engaged in the hateful and offensive practice of comparing Israeli policy to Nazism and using Holocaust-related language to condemn Israel more broadly, an effort to cast Israel as a demonic state that is bent on exterminating the Palestinian people. This trend picked up significant steam in the spring of 2008, when anti-Israel activists held events across the United States to commemorate what they referred to as the…

January 20, 2014 Conservative businessman Ron Unz has stirred controversy over the last year by publicizing ideas that appeal to anti-Semites; offering a forum for writers who demonize Israel and funding several anti-Israel activists, some of whom promote anti-Semitic canards. Though Unz does not appear to be an anti-Semite, he provides support to extreme anti-Israel ideologues and his writings resonate with and are regularly cited by anti-Semites. Unz’s newest venture, which began…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | January 15, 2014 Editor's Note: The following is an introduction to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf written by Abraham H. Foxman, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor. Mr. Foxman was asked to write the introduction for the 1999 English translation published by the Mariner Books division of Houghton Mifflin Co. It is reprinted here in its entirety with permission from the publisher. ALMOST SIXTY YEARS after the end of World War II,…

January 08, 2014 On December 16, 2013, the American Studies Association (ASA) membership voted to support a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.  In response, dozens of American colleges, universities and academic institutions have issued statements rejecting the boycott, and some have withdrawn from the ASA, including Brandeis University, Penn State Harrisburg University, Indiana University and Kenyon College. Below is a selection of quotes rejecting the ASA’s boycott: …

December 20, 2013 Read the full report: Kevin MacDonald Kevin MacDonald is an anti-Semitic tenured professor of evolutionary psychology at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB), where he has worked since 1985. MacDonald’s anti-Semitic views became widely known after he wrote a series of books on Jews, starting in the mid-1990s.  In these works, he argued that Jews are a hostile elite in American society who undermine the country’s European heritage and traditions…

December 17, 2013 David Duke is a racist and anti-Semite who has been active in the white supremacist movement for over 40 years. A former Klansman, Duke has tried to soften his image over the years by presenting himself as a “respectable racist” and author. Duke travels in the United States and abroad to spread his virulently anti-Semitic and racist worldview. He has spoken at various venues in the Middle East and Europe, particularly in Russia and the Ukraine, to promote his…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | December 08, 2013 JTA Nelson Mandela will always be remembered as a symbol of courageous resistance to the racist policies of apartheid South Africa. He was a true hero of conscience. But he also will always have a special place in the memory of the Jewish community. I first met Mandela in Geneva in 1990 as part of a delegation of American Jewish leaders. My colleagues and I spent 2 1/2 memorable hours with the then newly free African National Congress leader. It was a…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | December 04, 2013 The Huffington Post In recent years, Hollywood, for better or worse, has played a significant role in educating the public about the Holocaust and its contemporary implications. Sophie's Choice, Schindler's List, Life is Beautiful, the recently released Aftermath, along with many other films, have created some degree of popular cognizance about the nature of the Holocaust, the role of rescuers, forms of resistance and contemporary manifestations of…

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…

October 31, 2013 During this exciting Centennial year, we have devoted a heavy dose of our attention to the relationship between the two elements of our mission – fighting anti-Semitism and securing justice for all. At this, our final major national event of the Centennial, I want to turn my attention and yours solely to the condition of the Jewish people -- then, now and in the future. In 1913, the Jewish history was very much a mixed bag.  Centuries long anti-Semitism…

October 30, 2013 Since the mid-1990s, variations of the rumor that Tommy Hilfiger is racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic persist despite the fact that these allegations have been debunked over and over again. Spread initially through e-mails and other electronic media almost 20 years ago, the rumor’s many variations stem from an original allegation that Hilfiger appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and stated that his fashion was intended for upper-class whites and if he had known…

October 29, 2013 What was Kristallnacht (kris'·tahl·nockt)? Kristallnacht, the "Night of Broken Glass," was a wave of violent pogroms against Jews throughout Germany and Austria that took place on November 9–10, 1938. On the night of November 9th, the Gestapo (Nazi State Police) informed local police by telegram about the actions against Jews and their synagogues that would be taking place throughout Germany, instructing them not to interfere with what was happening…

October 22, 2013 Anti/contra el prejuicio: Término utilizado para describir el compromiso activo de enfrentar el prejuicio, los estereotipos y todas las formas de discriminación. Prejuicio: Una tendencia o preferencia —ya sea a favor o en contra de un individuo o grupo— que interfiere con el juicio imparcial. Intimidación: Las acciones repetidas o las amenazas de acción dirigidas a una persona por parte de una o más personas que son o son…

October 04, 2013 OKLAHOMA CITY, October 3, 2013 - Hobby Lobby President Steve Green has issued the following statement on behalf of the company: “We sincerely apologize for any employee comments that may have offended anyone, especially our Jewish customers and friends. Comments like these do not reflect the feelings of our family or Hobby Lobby. Our family has a deep respect for the Jewish faith and those who hold its traditions dear. We're proud contributors to Yad Vashem, as…

October 01, 2013 As the international community continues to consider its response to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons, conspiracy theories claiming Jewish or Israeli manipulation of or involvement in the events in Syria abound. These claims, primarily promoted by American anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers, invoke age-old anti-Semitic canards about Jewish control over world events and America serving as some sort of proxy for Jewish or Israeli…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | September 08, 2013 The Jewish Daily Forward Last June, Jane Eisner participated in a private roundtable discussion at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem about Israel’s Jewish identity. What came out of the talks was the sense that Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora face a similar challenge — how to be a modern people in a modern world while holding onto ancient tradition. This is the continuation of that discussion. In some ways, I’m used…

by: Abraham H. Foxman | August 27, 2013 JTA On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta, let’s begin by stating for the record: No, the Leo Frank case was not the impetus for the founding of the Anti-Defamation League. It is true that the organization, now celebrating its centennial, was founded the same year as the arrest and trial of Frank for the murder of one of his factory workers, a 13-year-old girl named Mary Phagan. But the idea for ADL,…