March 25, 2020 As the COVID-19 coronavirus continues to spread across the globe, examples of those seeking a scapegoat for the virus continue to proliferate. As ADL and other groups have explored, there have been numerous cases of xenophobia in the US related to the virus, particularly attacks against Asian individuals and groups. Internationally, there have also been many attempts to link COVID-19 to Israel, Zionists and Jews, with some people baselessly claiming the virus is part of a…

March 06, 2020 White supremacist Robert Sterkeson interrupted Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Thursday, March 5, 2020, rally in Phoenix, Arizona, when he waved a Nazi flag behind Sanders. Fellow rally attendees quickly pulled the flag from Sterkeson’s hands, and security teams removed him from the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Sterkeson, of Glendale, Arizona, is a self-described “stunt activist” who has harassed a range of Jewish and…

February 21, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 At least nine people were killed when a white supremacist opened fire at a hookah bar and other sites in Hanau, Germany. A religiously observant teenage table tennis star, who observes the Jewish sabbath, will be unable to participate in upcoming Olympic trials because the event partially falls on a Saturday. ADL has called on the annual carnival in the Belgian city of Aalst to withdraw the antisemitic caricatures which – as in previous years …

February 07, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3ADL unveiled a new online tool that will allow users to search its database of anti-Semitic incidents in real time. The fear generated by the spread of the coronavirus has led extremists to promote conspiracy theories and share anti-Semitic views. And anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York City finally declined in January, after a sustained uptick in prior months. Read on for more on these headlines, news you can use to fight hate and the latest info about…

January 16, 2020 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 With the assistance of ADL’s Center on Extremism, an alleged neo-Nazi was arrested on Friday for his apparent role in a nationwide swatting campaign. In testimony before a House subcommittee, ADL’s CEO urged Congress to take action to curb online hate speech, if the social media companies continue to fail to do so. In an effort to label Democrats as sympathetic toward Iran, President Trump retweeted an Islamophobic and doctored image of…

January 13, 2020 UPDATE: On March 15, 2021, John William Kirby Kelley was sentenced to 33 months in prison for his role in numerous swatting attacks targeting journalists, a Virginia university, a historic predominantly Black church in Virginia, an Islamic Center in Arlington, Texas, and a former U.S. Cabinet member. On January 10, 2020, federal authorities arrested 19-year-old John William Kirby Kelley of Vienna, Virginia, for his alleged role in a multi…

December 30, 2019 A Hanukkah party on December 28, 2019 in Monsey, New York, was shattered when a man entered a local rabbi’s home armed with a large knife and began stabbing people. The attack left five injured, one critically. The following day, police in Ramapo, New York, charged Grafton Thomas of Greenwood Lake, New York, with five counts of attempted murder and one count of burglary. Thomas pleaded not guilty at his December 29 arraignment. On Monday, December 30,…

December 13, 2019 THE WEEK'S BIG 3 Two gunmen motivated by anti-Semitism and anti-law enforcement beliefs attacked a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City on Tuesday, killing four people. President Trump signed an executive order that would ensure incidents of anti-Semitism be treated under federal as vigorously as other forms of discrimination. West Virginia fired three state employees and suspended more than 30 others after a photo surfaced showing a recent graduating class of correctional…

November 15, 2019 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 Newly released data from the FBI shows that hate crime murders in 2018 reached an all-time high. Following a sharp increase in anti-Semitic attacks directed at the Orthodox community, ADL announced a doubling of funding for its flagship education program, No Place for Hate, in schools throughout the borough. And officials at George Washington University are investigating after an anti-Semitic video posted on Snapchat was circulated amongst the…

November 08, 2019 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 An avowed white supremacist in Colorado was arrested after federal investigators uncovered a plot to bomb an historic synagogue. Campus officials at East Tennessee University are opening an investigation after signs saying “It’s okay to be white”— a popular white supremacist slogan — appeared around campus. A man in Milwaukee is facing felony hate-crime charges for allegedly throwing acid on a Latino man because of his…

November 05, 2019 Update: February 26, 2021: A federal court sentenced Richard Holzer to 19.5 years in prison.  Update: October 15, 2020:  The Justice Department announced that Richard Holzer, 28, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime and explosives charges for plotting to blow up the Temple Emanuel Synagogue in Pueblo, Colorado. According to a DOJ press release, Holzer faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the hate crime charge…

August 16, 2019 THE WEEK'S BIG 3 A man in southern Nevada was arrested after investigators uncovered his plot to attack an LGBTQ nightclub, a local synagogue and the regional ADL office with firearms and explosives. A white supremacist group distributed anti-immigrant and anti-Semitic fliers at Seattle-area synagogues as part of a coordinated propaganda effort. And over 100 tires were slashed in a predominantly Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in NJ. Read on for more on these headlines,…

Update: Just days after Unite the Right’s 2nd anniversary, white supremacist and Charlottesville attendee James Patrick Reardon Jr., of New Middletown, Ohio, was arrested for allegedly making threats to the Youngstown, Ohio, Jewish community center. Reardon was charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing for allegedly posting an Instagram video of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the background. The video was captioned, &ldquo…