Remarks by Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League December 03, 2018 New York, NY, December 3, 2018 Thank you for that kind introduction, and welcome to our third annual Never is Now conference. You know, ever since I started as ADL’s CEO nearly three and a half years ago, the thing that has kept me up at night is the fear that I will wake up the next morning to the news that something horrible has happened to a Jewish community in some far-off place. I…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | November 02, 2018 New York Daily News In Pittsburgh this week, the Jewish community has been burying its dead, the innocent men and women massacred by an anti-Semite while they were praying at the Tree of Life synagogue. For many of us, social media platforms — such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — have been vital ways to connect with people near and far to share our grief, anger and determination as well as ways to take action, from…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 26, 2018 The Washington Post American colleges are grappling with the challenge of striking the right balance between maintaining a safe, welcoming environment and one where freedom of speech and inquiry are prized. But it’s not a hard call, or it shouldn’t be, when dealing with bigotry and discrimination on campus. Unfortunately, U.S. colleges are increasingly the scenes of anti-Semitic incidents, the continuation of a trend that we at the…

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…

Ensuring Religious Freedom Remains Safe in France: Best Practices from America October 10, 2018 Introduction Anti-Semitism remains the world’s oldest forms of hatred. The targeting and scapegoating of Jews and Jewish communities dates back centuries. With the passing of each year, decade and century, the Anti-Semites have adapted, never giving up, always using the latest, most modern, most technologically advanced techniques to target, and intimidate us, and the one thing that has…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 04, 2018 The Times of Israel Academic freedom is a cherished value in universities. It is predicated on the idea that professors can teach and students can learn without other forces interfering in the process, limiting the pursuit of ideas. And yet, a recent incident at Ann Arbor suggests that is not always the case – that professors actually can shut down conversation and constrain academic freedom based purely on their politics. By this point, the…

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…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | September 13, 2018 JTA It has become conventional wisdom in certain circles that the Oslo agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was signed 25 years ago Sept. 13 on the White House lawn, was simply a failure. There is no doubt that the great hopes of Israeli-Palestinian peace and reconciliation engendered by Oslo have not been realized. Twenty-five years later not only is there no peace, but the parties are not even talking to each other and the…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | August 28, 2018 USA Today Last summer, as most teachers were still preparing their classrooms for students, the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades took place. Teachers were left wondering how they should discuss this horrific event with students and how students would react. For those teaching early grade students, many questioned whether they should have the conversation at all, and, if so, what kind of information was&nbsp…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | August 22, 2018 Algemeiner More than 70 years after the murder of six million Jews in the Shoah, we are witnessing a variety of efforts to legitimize antisemitism once again. The latest reminder of this came from the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammed, an open antisemite, who said recently: “Anti-Semitism is a term that is invented to prevent people from criticizing the Jews for doing wrong things.” Other manifestations of this appear…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | August 22, 2018 The Times of Israel Nothing exposes the awkwardness and superfluity of the recently passed Nation-State law in Israel better than the protests by the Druze community and the contortions that Israeli leaders are going through in order to calm the waters. Right-wing Israeli leaders, such as Naftali Bennett, Israel’s Minister of Education claim that in no way are they against the notion that Israel is both a Jewish and democratic state, but that…

By David Weinberg | Washington Representative for International Affairs and Susan Corke | Director of Countering Antisemitism and Extremism at Human Rights First August 15, 2018 The Hill In 2017, when the number of homophobic hate crimes increased in Norway, the Oslo police force marched in the Pride parade as a show of solidarity. When Canadian synagogues were threatened, authorities denounced the threats as antithetical to Canadian values, and police promised to proactively…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | August 12, 2018 USA Today One year ago, hundreds of torch-wielding white supremacists gathered on the campus of the University of Virginia, chanting “Jews will not replace us!" The following day, the streets of Charlottesville exploded in violence, as neo-Nazis, Klansmen and alt-right agitators clashed with counter-protestors. As the National Guard was being called in, a young counter-protester, Heather Heyer, was killed in a tragedy…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | August 10, 2018 The Hill Qatar’s flagship media network Al Jazeera continues to be a major exporter of hateful content against the Jewish people, Israel, and the United States. For this reason, it is particularly urgent for U.S. officials to evaluate the separate legal question of whether or not Al Jazeera should be required to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent over to its extensive ties to the Qatari regime. This would be an important…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | August 05, 2018 Algemeiner No matter how often one reads about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and thinks that one had heard it all, someone comes along and shocks us with their ignorance, all in the guise of objective analysis. So it is with an article published in The Washington Post on July 26 by a Norwegian professor, Jorgen Jensehaugen, titled “The Fatal Flaw in Trump’s Plan for Middle East Peace.” Jensehaugen’s thesis is…

By David Weinberg | Washington Representative for International Affairs July 20, 2018 FDD's Long War Journal The Islamic month of Ramadan is a venerated time in the Gulf.  Worshippers place a renewed emphasis on piety and community, while governments try to burnish their moral credentials by sponsoring major religious activities. Yet in so doing, America’s Gulf allies provided a platform this year to a wide range of hate preachers.  By hosting such extremists – even…

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 Alireza Nader | Chair of ADL's Iran Task Force June 29, 2018 The Jewish Chronicle The arrest of prominent Iranian human rights advocate Nasrin Sotudeh last week was just another sign that the Islamic Republic of Iran will never respect human rights or individual dignity. Mr Sotudeh has spent many years in jail fighting for human rights but was freed in September 2013 as part of President Hassan Rouhani’s “reform” efforts, only to be rearrested June 13, 2018 as the…