ADL Articles

June 02, 2021 Across Europe, protests against COVID-19 restrictions and public campaigns promoting vaccines against the virus have included Holocaust symbols and imagery, such as the yellow star. The utilization of this type of Holocaust imagery wrongly compares the antisemitic, racist, misogynist, xenophobic and homophobic Nazi-regime and its genocidal acts to current government measures to contain the pandemic. Comparing the two is not only an act of moral outrage, but also represents an…

During the two weeks of military conflict between Israel and Hamas in May 2021, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. reported to ADL increased by 75% compared to the two weeks before the fighting began, from 127 to 222, according to preliminary data. (Also see update: Full data for month of May 2021). Many of these incidents appear to have been perpetrated by individuals scapegoating American Jews for the actions of the Israeli government. The incidents have taken place at and around the…

April 23, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The former Minneapolis Police officer who knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than 9 minutes last year was found guilty Tuesday of all three charges against him, including second-degree murder. ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt asked advertisers to pull their ads from Fox News and its prime-time show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in a speech to the World Federation of Advertisers. The Senate passed with overwhelming bipartisan support a hate crimes…

April 22, 2021 Image: Fox News In the days following Tucker Carlson’s vitriolic, xenophobic commentary about demographic change, most white supremacist reactions were supportive of the Fox News personality and praised him for railing against “white genocide.” Some suggested that Carlson is finally showing his true colors and fully embracing white nationalism. One 4Chan poster wrote: “As predicted, Carlson is our guy.” Other extremists argued Carlson is not…

April 21, 2021 Screenshot: ABC News Extremists consistently use mainstream news stories as opportunities to share their racist, often violent, views on a range of social media and online platforms. The April 20, 2021 verdict in the Derek Chauvin murder trial was no exception. Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges in the May 2020 murder of George Floyd. Note: Many of the comments documented in this piece include racist, violent and otherwise disturbing language. Prior to the…

April 16, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 The former police officer who was recorded on camera fatally shooting Daunte Wright during a traffic stop was arrested and charged with second-degree manslaughter on Wednesday. ADL called on Fox News to remove primetime opinion host Tucker Carlson after he openly embraced a white supremacist conspiracy theory in front of millions of viewers. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed a watered-down hate crimes bill into law this week, one that ADL and other…

April 06, 2021 The best-known images from the January 6 rally and assault on the U.S. Capitol largely feature men, decked out in camouflage, MAGA hats and QAnon paraphernalia. But women made up about 14 percent of those who have been charged in relation to activity that day. This is an unusually high number of women for a right-wing extremist event, which is attributable at least in part to the high concentration of QAnon supporters at the January 6 events, and to the significant number of…

March 31, 2021 4.12.21 UPDATE:   The White Lives Matter marches that took place on Sunday, April 11 were very sparsely attended. Counter-protesters made up the majority of attendees -- and in some cases were the only attendees.  Huntington Beach saw the largest rally, with around 10 WLM marchers, some bearing extremist symbols and others with various right-wing flags, and 500 counter-protesters at its peak before being…

March 31, 2021 The American Jewish community continues to face significant fear and anxiety from the threat of antisemitic or other hateful attacks and harassment. Following up on our 2020 survey results, we asked Jewish Americans to tell us about their experiences online and off with antisemitism. Their responses indicate that antisemitism still is very much a part of Jewish Americans’ lives. Antisemitic experiences Well over half (63 percent) of Jews in America have either…

March 09, 2021 Extremist movements pose many problems to society, from spreading hate and intolerance to engaging in significant and deadly violence.  It is particularly problematic when adherents of extreme causes are able to persist in key institutions dedicated to protecting the people of the United States, institutions such as emergency response units, law enforcement and the military. Of these institutions, the U.S. military is the largest, with more than two million active duty…

March 05, 2021 THE WEEK’S BIG 3 U.S. House leaders canceled Thursday’s legislative session and rescheduled morning votes after police officials warned of a possible plot by a militia group to storm Capitol Hill. A suspect ADL identified as an alleged white supremacist was arrested after the FBI raided the Florida home he was renting after moving from New Jersey. Jewish groups called for an investigation into allegations that a Frontier Airlines flight crew made antisemitic…

February 26, 2021 As of February 25, 2021, more than 30 virtual events celebrating Black History Month have been disrupted by racist Zoombombing attacks. Zoombombing first gained attention nearly a year ago, during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, as extremists and anonymous online trolls took advantage of the new reliance on virtual conferencing technology by disrupting a wide range of events, often targeting marginalized communities. In this most recent spate of virtual…

February 17, 2021 It’s been more than a month since a horde of extremists forced their way into the U.S. Capitol, protesting the outcome of a national election and intent on disrupting a time-honored democratic process. At least five people died during the violent attack, including one Capitol Police officer. ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) has identified 212 of the roughly 800 individuals who are believed to have breached the building on January 6. The emerging snapshot…

February 01, 2021 Users across social media platforms evoked antisemitism during and in the wake of the GameStop incident that took place at the end of January 2021. (photo source: Twitter) During the final week of January 2021, beleaguered retailer GameStop’s stock was driven to astronomical new highs when posters on the r/WallStreetBets subreddit launched a buying frenzy -- ostensibly aimed at soaking the Wall Street hedge funds that had shorted the stock for profit. As the…

January 15, 2021 On January 10, 2021, Nation of Islam (NOI) Student Minister Dr. Wesley Muhammad provided the latest example in the group’s long history of virulent antisemitism. Muhammad delivered a two-hour sermon, broadcast live from NOI’s national headquarters in Chicago, in which he explicitly and repeatedly blamed Jews and Israel for the coronavirus pandemic. As of January 14, his sermon, titled “Beyond Tuskegee: Why Black People Must Not Take the Experimental COVID-19…

January 13, 2021 In the wake of the January 6, 2021 siege on the U.S. Capitol, Americans are understandably worried about extremism and political violence. They want to know how bad things are, and how bad they might get. The bottom line: Although we should not panic, there’s also no excuse for ignoring an extremist threat that appears to have significant staying power. In other words, we all need to focus on the long game. The anger and vitriol we saw on January 6 will not…

January 08, 2021 Photo credit: Associated Press Since the violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, some technology companies have taken additional steps to crack down on the dissemination of hate and violent conspiracy theories. This includes indefinite bans of many of Donald Trump’s social media accounts and Shopify ceasing its sale of merchandise from the Trump Organization. However, many tech companies continue to play a significant role in spreading the hate and…

January 08, 2021 On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, pro-Trump extremists, including some identified right-wing extremists, stormed the U.S. Capitol building, interrupting the Congressional session affirming the election results and forcing a partial evacuation. The nation and the world watched the chaos unfold, including scenes of the mob on the Senate floor, in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, and swarming the Capitol steps. By the time the siege ended, four people were dead: three from…

January 07, 2021 Protestors—one wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt—inside the U.S. Capitol building. Photo credit: ITV news In the hours since pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol building, antisemitic ideologues, activists and conspiracy theorists have attempted to implicate Jews and Zionists in the violence. Although these antisemites have a range of opinions about President Trump, many were united in their belief that the events of Wednesday,…