For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the High Holidays, are celebrated by Jewish people all over the world. The High Holidays fall on different days each year. For the specific dates each year, check our Calendar of Observances. These and other Jewish holidays fall on different days in our calendar because they follow the Jewish calendar, which has a different number of days than our calendar. The Jewish calendar is a Soli-lunar calendar. …
Unconstitutional Backdoor School Prayer Bill Will Have Unintended Consequences
Article
May 12, 2017
The Florida Legislature recently enacted a back door school prayer bill – Senate Bill 436, the so-called "Florida Student and School Personnel Religious Liberties Act," which the Governor is expected to sign. It is intended to do an end run around U.S. Supreme Court decisions barring school-sponsored prayer in K-12 public schools. Senate Bill 436 (“SB 436”) is unnecessary, raises serious constitutional issues, and creates a legal quagmire for Florida…
ADL Statement for House Judiciary Subcommittee Hearings on Religious Liberty
Letter
February 16, 2017 The Honorable Steve King
Chair
House Judiciary Subcommittee on the on the Constitution and Civil Justice
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable Steve Cohen
Ranking Member
House Judiciary Subcommittee on the on the Constitution and Civil Justice
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman King and Ranking Member Cohen:
We write to provide the views of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for…
Distribution of Religious Materials and Proselytizing by Outside Groups and Individuals
Tools and Strategies
For Educators Individuals, including parents, and groups who have no formal relationship to a school (Third Parties) may distribute religious materials, including Bibles, to students outside of school premises. They may also discuss religious matters with students.
Third-party materials or publications of a religious viewpoint may be distributed on- campus to the same extent distribution of third-party secular materials is permitted. However, courts have applied different rules to…
For Educators Release time in the public schools refers to programs in which students are released from school early to attend religious classes off school premises. Participating students must have permission from their parents. Nonparticipating students remain in school. Such programs may be constitutional if the religious classes take place off school grounds, if no public school funds are expended, and if school officials or teachers do not promote program attendance through coercion or…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening In commemoration of Women’s History Month, this resource helps educators engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the experience of women and gender in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution to women’s experience, instruction should…
Remarks by Jonathan Greenblatt CEO of the Anti-Defamation League to Pope Francis
News
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | February 09, 2017 Your Holiness,
This week, in synagogues all over the world, Jews will read Shirat Ha-yam, the “Song of the Sea” from the book of Exodus that Miriam, Moses and the Israelites sang after they miraculously passed through the Sea of Reeds on dry land.
As a newly free people, they expressed their thanks to God for their redemption, saying:
Who is like you, o eternal, among the…
Interfaith Dialogue: A Jew and a Muslim Discuss the Spate of Hate Crimes in Aftermath of 2016 Election
Article
December 21, 2016 Editor’s Note:A Muslim academic and a Jewish interfaith rabbi recently sat down together for a discussion about the spate of hate crimes that have taken place in the aftermath of the 2016 election campaign and what can happen with Jews and Muslims work together to combat hate speech.
The following conversation between Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Institute at Manhattan College, and Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious…
8 Ideas for Teaching National Hispanic Heritage Month
Lesson Plan
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening Commemorating National Hispanic Heritage Month
In commemoration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we present this resource to help teachers engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the Hispanic American experience in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution…
ADL Welcomes Presbyterian Church's (USA) Support for Jewish Right to Self-Determine
Press Release
Expresses Disappointment for Church’s Endorsement of Report Calling for Alternatives to Two State Solution New York, NY, June 27, 2016 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed disappointment at a number of problematic Israel-focused motions endorsed last week by the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly, including a report calling on the church to explore alternatives to the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and an overture advocating the church study…
by: Rabbi David Sandmel | June 05, 2016 The Times of Israel The General Conference of United Methodist Church recently concluded its quadrennial gathering, which this year was held in Portland, Oregon. I and many others in the Jewish community, not to mention many Christians as well, were pleased with the outcome of a number of votes on resolutions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Inter alia, the Church rejected resolutions calling for divestment or for investment screens…
How Nostra Aetate Transformed Catholic-Jewish Relations
News
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | October 27, 2015 PBS - Religion & Ethics Newsweekly The promulgation, on October 28, 1965, of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on the Church’s Relations with Non-Christian Religions, may be the most important moment is post-Holocaust Jewish-Christian relations and interfaith relations writ large.
In its fourth chapter, Nostra Aetate effectively overturned centuries of what the noted French Jewish historian…
by: Lorraine Array March 23, 2015
Recent incidents around the world remind us of the power of hate and vitriol to permeate our religious, cultural and national borders. ISIS continues to expand its alliances and fear-mongering tactics. The world is in many ways paralyzed to see a way forward, and the need for solutions capable of building bridges of understanding and respect has never been greater.
In this spirit, in early 2013, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Connecticut Office…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening The First Girl to Pitch a Shutout in the Little League World Series
In 2014 Mo’Ne Davis, a 13-year-old girl, made news headlines as the first girl to ever pitch a shutout in the Little League World series. At that time she was considered the “most talked about baseball player on earth right now” according to many observers in the sports world. Mo’Ne (pronounced Moh-nay…
Winter Holidays: December Dilemma or Teaching Opportunity?
Tools and Strategies
For Educators | For Parents, Families, and Caregivers Winter is a festive time of year because so many holidays are celebrated by people from different religions, cultures and races. We spend time with family and friends, connect with our faith or culture, give and receive gifts and enjoy special foods and treats. However, this time of year—especially in schools and whether it's in-person, online or hybrid—can be a time where some children can feel uncomfortable, excluded, insulted…
Identity-Based Bullying: What It Is and What We Can Do About It
Lesson Plan
GRADE LEVEL: K-12 Bullying is a major problem in our schools. When it targets aspects of a person’s identity, it is called identity-based bullying, and may include bias about appearance, race, culture, gender and gender expression, language, religion, socioeconomic status, disability and sexual orientation. According to the CDC’s 2024 Youth Violence Prevention study focused on bullying, 1 in 5 high school students report being bullied in school in the past year. That same CDC…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language Using Poetry to Teach about Identity
Reading and writing poetry can provide an opening for young people to explore the various aspects of their identity, including their name, race and ethnicity, physical characteristics and more.
April is National Poetry Month, a good opportunity to explore poetry with your students. Because poetry does not require strict sentence structure or the usual grammar rules…
by: Abraham H. Foxman | February 26, 2014 The Huffington Post Ten years ago, Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" film was released amid a swirl of controversy and after a relentless public relations campaign playing up the director's celebrity status and his adamant refusal to change the film amid concerns of insensitivity and anti-Semitism. Gibson's "Passion" was a passion of hate. His film bought into all of the troubling representations of the Passion that fortified church-based…