Research & Analysis

August 30, 2017 The violent white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which featured anti-Semitic chants and imagery on full display, has fueled concern about whether the kind of hatred and violence seen in Charlottesville could inspire copycat incidents or acts of hate against Jews or Jewish institutions in other parts of the country. While it is impossible to directly link anti-Semitic incidents seen elsewhere to the horrific displays of hate witnessed in Charlottesville…

August 29, 2017 Adults and children alike are grappling to make sense of current events. Discussions of racism, anti-Semitism and social injustice have become increasingly contentious as images of white supremacists carrying torches and chanting hateful rhetoric in Charlottesville fill our social media feeds and television screens. Children are attuned to these conversations and disturbing images of violence, hate and incivility, and are seeking comfort and answers from teachers, family…

August 29, 2017 In response to the recent events in Charlottesville, Facing History and Ourselves, Teaching Tolerance, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Federation of Teachers, and EduColor teamed up to support educators as they return to the classroom. Hosted and led by AFT, we asked educators what topics they were most concerned about and addressed them in a co-hosted webinar, “When Hate Is in the Headlines: Resources for K–12 Educators.” Together, we offered…

August 18, 2017 By Lauren Jones Civil Rights National Counsel at the Anti-Defamation League On August 17, 1915 a mob dragged Leo Frank, a Jewish superintendent at a pencil factory in Georgia, from his prison cell, drove him to a place where others stood ready with a noose, and lynched him. They called themselves the Knights of Mary Phagan. A crowd of men, women and children looked on and cheered. Within the local community, the members of the lynch mob were well-known. But their…

August 17, 2017 On August 13th, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released the 17th issue of Inspire magazine featuring instructions from the “AQ-Chef,” including “a simple method for targeting trains…[involving] derailing a train from the railroad by placing an object on the tracks.” The magazine supplements the instructions with a list of priority targets, ranking “Jewish interests everywhere” first. While this is not the first time al-Qaeda…

August 15, 2017 Alongside the racism, nativism and xenophobia on display at Unite the Right, the event was also an expression of the animating power of anti-Semitism.  Marchers threw Nazi salutes as they waved swastika flags, proudly wore swastika pins and shirts, and shouted “sieg heil!”  A sign carried by rally-goers warned that the “Jewish media is going down;” another declared that “Jews are Satan’s children.”  A white…

August 13, 2017 Racial hatred, bias and white supremacy were on full display in Charlottesville, Virginia this weekend. In the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades, “Unite the Right” brought together white supremacist groups including the alt-right, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. Their stated goal was to save the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, because like other places in the South, there are still monuments there celebrating heroes…

August 13, 2017 On the morning of Saturday, August 12, hundreds of white supremacists descended on Charlottesville, Virginia, for the Unite the Right rally. The rally never happened, but it almost didn’t matter: The event was the largest and most violent gathering of white supremacists in decades. On Friday afternoon, over the objections of the Charlottesville city council, Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler secured a permit to gather in one of the typically bucolic college town…

August 04, 2017 On August 5th, 2012, six Sikh worshippers were killed, and four others wounded, by a white supremacist skinhead at their Gurdwara in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The shooter then turned his gun on himself. Less than a week after the tragedy, US Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. participated in a memorial service for the victims, stating that the crime was “an act of terrorism, an act of hatred, a hate crime.” Now, five year later, as we observe the anniversary of this…

July 28, 2017 Since July 14, 2017, the Al-Aqsa events have shaken both the geopolitical and virtual landscape of Jerusalem, and tensions have generated hateful, anti-Semitic speech from international terror groups and everyday-Twitter users. On July 27, the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula media outlet, al-Malahem Media, released a 13-minute video titled, “For You, oh Al-Aqsa,” featuring Khalid Batarfi, one of the organization’s senior military commanders. The video…

July 24, 2017 “Imagine getting your debts paid off, including student loans, back child support debt and get your home free and clear with the Little Promissory Note,” the website promises, “LPN Money that you don’t have to pay back once it is processed.”  A YouTube video advertising this “Little Promissory Note” promises that it “is the same as a dollar bill that can pay off all types of debts.” The Little Promissory note sounds…

July 17, 2017 William Scott Planer has joined the ever-expanding list of white supremacists vandalizing and attacking Jewish institutions nationwide. Planer, who lives in Denver, was arrested on July 14, 2017 for affixing a “Fight Terror, Nuke Israel” sticker to the door of the Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is being held at the El Paso County Sheriff’s Department in Colorado on a $500,000 bond as a fugitive from justice for felony…