February 21, 2014 Daniel W. Jones, M.D. Chancellor The University of Mississippi Dear Chancellor Jones:
We are writing to express our deep concern about the recent incident at the University of Mississippi in which two unidentified men placed a noose around the neck of the statue of James Meredith, the school’s first black student. There have reportedly been other recent incidences of troubling acts of homophobia and racism.
College is a unique and special time in a young person…
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by: Mark Onofrio February 07, 2014 Criticism of immigrant policy is not an excuse to undermine the humanity of others with the kind of vitriol that dominated the internet, especially Twitter, after the Atlanta-based Coca Cola Company aired a commercial with “America the Beautiful,” sung in different languages and featuring a diversity of people during the Super Bowl.
The term immigrant is a descriptor, not a slur. However, it is often used in a pejorative way. For those who are…
by: Mark Onofrio January 24, 2014 We recently had a reminder of the enduring power of stereotypes in American when an interview by Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman prompted a slew of racist remarks on Twitter and a mainstream media commentator referred to him as a “thug” and an “ape.”
While perhaps unintentional on the part of media commentators, the…
by: Mark Onofrio January 13, 2014 Five Tips for Working with Children, Tweens and Teens
As we honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy through the National Day of Service, we encourage teachers, parents and families to provide community service opportunities for children and youth. Below are tips to help make the experience meaningful.
“Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to…
by: Mark Onofrio December 06, 2013
Many educators want to incorporate the passing of significant figures into their classroom discussion. ADL’s Education Division provides resources to educators about contemporary issues and current event topics to help make classroom learning more dynamic forums for critical thinking.
In celebration and memory of the life of Nelson Mandela, this special edition of The Current Events Classroom provides students the opportunity to learn…
by: By Abraham H. Foxman | April 18, 2013 The Huffington Post One of the first things Argentinian native Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio did after being elected pope on March 13 was to send a message of friendship to Rome's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni -- and, by extension, the Jewish people.
"I sincerely hope to be able to contribute to the progress that relations between Jews and Catholics have enjoyed since the Second Vatican Council," wrote Cardinal Bergoglio, who took the name Pope Francis…
by: Mark Onofrio April 17, 2013 Echoes and Reflections staff traveled to a remote area of Alaska to deliver the program’s first professional development program in the state. The Echoes and Reflections program has now offered professional development in 47 US states and District of Columbia. The program has provided educational resources on the Holocaust to over 18,000 educators and community members.
Deborah Batiste, Project Director for Echoes and Reflections, traveled from…
The repeated anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views of Iran's leadership place the Iranian regime among the foremost threats to Jews and the state of Israel. Iran's leaders repeatedly demonize the state of Israel and openly call for its destruction at every opportunity. Most notoriously, they describe Israel as a "fake regime" that "must be wiped off the map." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has termed Zionists "the most detested people in all humanity" and called the extermination…
Read the full report here: Hezbollah (PDF).
Since its emergence in 1982, Hezbollah has waged an anti-Israel campaign and guerrilla war against Israeli forces. The Lebanese-based U.S.-designated terrorist organization, which seeks to establish a Shiite Islamic state that encompasses both Lebanon and Israel, has been implicated in numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli and Western targets.
Most recently, members of Hezbollah were implicated by Bulgaria in the July 2012…
by: Mark Onofrio January 11, 2013 Applications for smartphones and tablets have become an emerging segment of the online and entertainment industry. As with videos, blogs and social networking platforms which came before, Apps are now being created that some consider funny, but which actually cross the line from humorous to offensive. Recent examples include two free apps on Google called “Make Me Asian” and “Make Me Indian,” that allow users to edit…
January 02, 2013 Q. What is the basis for ADL's concerns about Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"?A. We first learned about Mr. Gibson's plans to make a film based on the final hours of Jesus' life in a New York Times Magazine article that appeared in February 2003. An early version of the script was shared with us. In August 2003, an ADL representative saw a rough cut in Houston. On January 21, we saw a version of the film at a screening in Orlando, Florida. We had hoped to see the film…
December 30, 2012 Remarks By Abraham H. Foxman National Director Anti-Defamation League ADL National Commission Meeting New York, NY, November 1, 2007You have just heard a very important presentation by John Marttila on our 2007 Survey of American Attitudes Toward Jews. But it is just the tip of the iceberg. The survey yielded much information and we will be releasing additional data in the weeks to come. But now let's ask broader questions about anti-Semitism: Why is it so enduring and lethal…
by: Simon Reich | January 01, 2000 Dimensions Vol. 13, No. 2. To what extent -- if any -- and in what ways, did Ford in Germany cooperate with the Nazi regime? And, if it did, what motivated such cooperation: racist ideology, or a concern for corporate profitability? In 1990 I published a book entitled The Fruits of Fascism (Cornell University Press), in which I attempted to offer a compelling and novel thesis. I argued that the different degrees of success enjoyed by the Ford Motor Company's…
Fifty Years of Forgetting and Remembering by: S. Jonathan Wiesen | January 01, 2000 Dimensions, Vol. 13, No. 2. The great majority of German businessmen behaved in a decidedly unheroic manner during the Nazi era. Most of them, especially leaders of larger companies, not only refrained from risking their lives to save Jews, but actually profited from the use of forced and slave labor, the "Aryanization" of Jewish property, and the plundering of companies in Nazi-occupied Europe. Six years ago,…
August 30, 2011 Ten years after 9/11, antisemitic conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks are "alive and well" and fueled by an entrenched propaganda industry, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which today issued a new report showing how these theories have grown and evolved over the last decade.
In "Decade of Deceit: Antisemitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories 10 Years Later," ADL looks at the individuals who continue to circulate distorted conspiracy theories about 9/11,…
Compliance and Confrontation by: Victoria J. Barnett | January 01, 1998 Dimensions, Vol 12, No 2 Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered by the Nazis. Churches, especially those in Nazi Germany, sought to act, as institutions tend to do, in their own best interests -- narrowly defined, short-sighted interests. The list of "bystanders" -- those who declined to challenge the Third Reich in any way -- that emerges from any study…
by: Jonathan Petropoulos | January 01, 1997 Dimensions, Vol 11, No 1 It is time for Switzerland, Sweden, Portugal and Spain to acknowledge that there were no truly neutral countries on the European continent during World War II. It is now time for those four nations to acknowledge that they were part of the Nazis' New Order and that they bear some responsibility for the tragic history of the Thirties and Forties. Neutrality, when practiced by nations, is not always neutral. It does not…
by: Abraham H. Foxman | July 11, 2007 Jewish Telegraphic Agency NEW YORK (JTA) – With anti-Semitism resurgent in the world, one of the encouraging elements for the Jewish people, particularly if one is to compare things today to the 1930s and 1940s, is the remarkable change in the Catholic Church's attitudes toward Jews. In the past four decades, a conceptual revolution has taken place in the church's relationship with the Jewish people. The first step came with Vatican II and its…
August 09, 2001 By Abraham H. Foxman
This article appeared in the Washington Post on Tuesday August 7, 2001 and the International Herald-Tribune on Thursday August 9, 2001
The fall of the Soviet Empire had many positive results, most particularly ending fear of nuclear holocaust and the freeing of millions of people in Russia and the former Soviet republics and throughout Eastern Europe.
Another positive outcome was the diminution of ideological politics throughout the world,…
The UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 to September 7, 2001, brought together over 12,000 representatives from 194 states and organizations to forge a common agenda against discrimination. Over two decades later, the “Durban process” has come to symbolize the United Nation’s polarization over antisemitism and anti-Zionism, a form of antisemitism which opposes the…