CHICAGO (FOX 32) - Two weeks from now, it will be 20 years since a white supremacist killed popular former Northwestern basketball coach Ricky Byrdsong, bringing nationwide attention to hate crimes in the Heartland.
The killer was Benjamin Smith, a young white supremacist from Wilmette. Over that Fourth of July weekend, he shot and killed Ricky and 27-year-old Woon June Yoon, in Bloomington, Indiana. He also wounded nine other people, including six Jewish residents of Rogers Park, before…
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The Daily Progress, June 17, 2019… WASHINGTON — Here’s how area members of Congress voted on major issues during the legislative week ending June 14.
House
Seeking courts’ help to enforce subpoenas. Voting 229 for and 191 against, the House on June 11 adopted a resolution (H Res 430) authorizing its committees to ask federal courts to enforce committee subpoenas for documents and testimony from the Trump administration and its current and former…
PBS News Hour, Topeka, KS, June 12, 2019… Kansas Democrats plan to have voters rank candidates rather than pick only one in a presidential primary set for May 2020. The party is moving away from its more traditional caucuses, trying ranked-choice voting and allowing mail ballots to boost participation, State Chairwoman Vicki Hiatt said Tuesday. The state party has submitted its plans for the May 2 balloting to the Democratic National Committee for its approval. With the…
The Observer, June 11, 2019… On July 17, the After Charlottesville Project will host its second summit in San Francisco, California. While last year’s gathering involved grassroots and city response initiatives, the focus of this year’s summit will involve the “private tech sector” and “best practices on the fight against hate and extremism online.” Representatives for the Charles Koch Institute and the Anti-Defamation League will join…
The Jerusalem Post, June 8, 2019… Is an LGBTQ parade banning flags with Jewish stars? Yes. Not really. Kind of.
The D.C. Dyke March, a social justice-focused parade for, in its words, “queer liberation” happening Friday, announced that it is not welcoming any “nationalist symbols.” That includes Israeli flags and American flags. More controversially, rainbow flags with Jewish stars in the center will be banned because, according to…
Mark Pitcavage, Senior Research Fellow at ADL's Center on Extremism, was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune about the evolving meaning of the "okay" hand gesture.
According to Mr. Pitcavage, “you absolutely cannot assume what someone is doing when they make the OK sign unless there is contextual information. If the person making the sign is a known white supremacist, then one may assume. If the person making the sign has hate symbols on their clothes, or tattoos or jewelry, perhaps…
Regional Director David Goldenberg was interviewed about the attempted arson attacks against Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel Congregation and the Florence G. Heller Jewish Community Center in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.
The full interviews can be found below:
CBS 2 Chicago
ABC 7 Chicago
WBBM Newsradio
WGN
Remarks by George Selim, Senior Vice President for Programs, ADL May 15, 2019 Below is George Selim's oral statement to the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties on May 15, 2019. You can view his full written testimony here.
Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Roy, and Members of the Subcommittee. My name is George Selim, I serve as Senior Vice President for Programs at ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. It is an honor to…
May 13, 2019 By Ahmad Sultan | Associated Director for Research, Advocacy and Technology Policy, ADL's Center for Technology and Society
Livestreaming, the act of broadcasting an event from your device to a social media platform in real-time, has been used for activism across the world, giving a platform to marginalized people, and capturing social inequities and government injustices like the murder of Philando Castle. It has played a role in bringing communities together through the…
by: Jonathan Greenblatt | May 01, 2019 The Times of Israel As we remember the six million Jews who died during the Holocaust on Yom HaShoah, we are once again confronted with loss. Once again, we are confronted by the violent hate that has plagued the Jewish people for thousands of years.
It is hard to believe that six months to the day of the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in American history at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, this week we witnessed another…
Following the tragic shooting at the Chabad of Poway, Jessica Gall, co-Interim Regional Director, spoke to the Chicago Tribune about the effects of shootings on the sense of safety in houses of worship.
“I would imagine (worshippers) feel vulnerable when something like this happens, especially at the end of a major holiday,” Gall said. “It makes you feel as if a place that should be welcoming and a place for prayer and service is not that.”
The article also…
Jessica Gall, co-Interim Regional Director, spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times about the rise in public events and propaganda effort by white supremacists groups.
"This is by and large a small group of people, but I don't think we can disregard the impact their ideas can have," she said. "With social media . . . these ideologies have been perpetuated."
Click here to read the full article.
April 26, 2019 USA Today By George Selim | ADL Senior Vice President of Programs; Former Director of the Office for Community Partnerships and Interagency Countering Violent Extremism Task Force at the Department of Homeland Security
Six months after a gunman shouting “all Jews must die” killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, another gunman in another synagogue killed one worshiper and wounded three — this time in Poway, California.
…
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Nevada Legislators Gather for First-Ever Interfaith Passover Seder Hosted in State Capitol
CARSON CITY, NEV. (April 25, 2019) – Amid a growingly divisive political climate nationally, legislators in Nevada recently sat down to celebrate diversity during an inspirational, first-of-its-kind, interfaith Passover Seder at the Nevada State Capitol. On Wednesday, April 24, during the Nation of Immigrants Seder sponsored by ADL in partnership with…
by: Kenneth Jacobson | April 16, 2019 Forward Last week, the ADL joined a number of other Jewish organizations in signing a letter to President Donald Trump asking him to oppose any steps by Israel to annex territory in the West Bank.
Signing the letter was for us the ultimate Zionist statement.
Israel needs a two-state solution as much as the Palestinians. And as news reports suggest the Trump Israeli-Palestinian peace plan is being readied for release in the coming weeks,…
The endurance of the fraudulent text sheds light on just why anti-Semitism is surging from both the right and left by: Kenneth Jacobson | April 11, 2019 The Times of Israel At a time when anti-Semitism is resurging in the world and there is a lot of discussion about what anti-Semitism is, the relevance of the early 20th century fabrication, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, has never been greater.
The Protocols, concocted by the Russian tsarist police in the early…
Remarks by Eileen Hershenov, Senior Vice President for Policy, ADL April 09, 2019 Washington, D.C., April 9, 2019
Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Collins and Members of the Committee, good morning. I am Eileen Hershenov, Senior Vice President for Policy at ADL.
Please let me first say thank for your leadership in recognizing the importance of addressing the increase in hate crimes and the resurgence of white supremacy. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss topics my…
UPDATE: In response to comments from President Trump regarding dual-loyalty concerns for American Jews, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt spoke at length about the issue on CNN on 8/21/19. Please view the clip here.
The charge of disloyalty has been used to harass, marginalize, and persecute the Jewish people for centuries. Sometimes referred to as the “dual loyalty” charge, it alleges that Jews should be suspected of being disloyal neighbors or citizens because their true…
by: Jonathan Greenblatt | March 19, 2019 As we count the dead massacred while worshipping in mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, it’s time to recognize a painful and obvious fact – white supremacy is a transnational terrorist threat that could engulf us all.
To some, this might sound like an exaggeration. For the past two decades, law enforcement officials worldwide primarily have been focused on the Islamist extremist threat. They have pursued terror organizations like Al…
by: Jonathan Greenblatt | March 08, 2019 The Forward Can it happen here?
It’s a question that Americans, and particularly Jewish-Americans, have asked over the decades when looking to Europe. We see the ocean that separates us as an impenetrable barrier that keeps the pathologies that may plague the old country far, far away from us.
Yet, having spent some time last month meeting with Jewish communities across the continent, I saw in the rising anti-Semitism there glimmers of…