Research & Analysis

May 01, 2022 Thank you for that kind introduction. I am so glad to welcome you – leaders from coast to coast committed to the fight against antisemitism and hate. I don’t need to tell you how important and pressing this work is. All of you know this from the work you do in your communities. You know when a synagogue or cemetery is desecrated. You know the families who have to comfort their children after a slur is hurled their way – online or in real life. You all…

by: David Andrew Weinberg | December 13, 2021 Thirty years ago, the Gulf state of Kuwait was liberated from Iraqi forces by an American-led military coalition. Its society is exceptionally pluralistic, with large Sunni, Shi’ite and expatriate communities, and it has the most participatory system of government in the Arabian Peninsula. Kuwait’s new ruler Amir Nawaf Al Sabah took office in September 2020, and during his biggest speech this year he called on the Kuwaiti nation to…

New ADL Finding Hints at Much Broader Failure of Enforcement by Facebook by: David Andrew Weinberg | November 17, 2021 In the wake of a whistleblower complaint, Facebook has come under criticism for failing to take adequate measures to address hate speech on its platform. ADL has repeatedly noted that the company relies too heavily on artificial intelligence to manage hateful content, and that instead, social media companies such as Facebook need to step up enforcement at scale and by design,…

January 01, 1970 ADL proudly supports the right of the Jewish people, like other peoples, to self-determination. In the case of the Jews, this translates to the right to live in a Jewish, democratic state in their ancient homeland, Israel. ADL believes that the existence of Israel provides Jews with a safe haven from the bigotry and endangerment they have suffered perennially as a minority culture among non-Jewish majority cultures — be it from Tsarist pogroms, Hitler’s Third Reich…

At ADL, we monitor extremism and misinformation regularly as part of our work fighting hate. As is the case with many legacy organizations, there is a fair amount of misinformation spread about who ADL is and the reality of the work we do. To help stop the spread of this misinformation, below are responses to some of the most egregious claims. Claim: ADL supports racist, militarized policing Fact: ADL opposes racist or militarized policing and has a long and documented history of…

by: Carole Nuriel | May 14, 2021 The Times of Israel JERUSALEM — The State of Israel and Israeli society are currently in the throes of a major crisis, one of the gravest ever. For several weeks, we have been witnessing events that one after the other have escalated the situation. Now we have reached a point where Israel is engaged in direct warfare with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, along with a dangerous conflagration inside Israel that threatens to shred the…

November 20, 2020 By David Andrew Weinberg The Yemeni Embassy in Washington recently released a report featuring primary source documents on the core ideology of the Houthi insurgents who seized Yemen’s capital in 2014.  That report, authored by Embassy official Salem Baafi, makes a case that antisemitism and other forms of hate form an essential part of the worldview and motivation of Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Houthis’ oft-invoked slogan is itself antisemitic…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 26, 2018 The Washington Post American colleges are grappling with the challenge of striking the right balance between maintaining a safe, welcoming environment and one where freedom of speech and inquiry are prized. But it’s not a hard call, or it shouldn’t be, when dealing with bigotry and discrimination on campus. Unfortunately, U.S. colleges are increasingly the scenes of anti-Semitic incidents, the continuation of a trend that we at the…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | October 04, 2018 The Times of Israel Academic freedom is a cherished value in universities. It is predicated on the idea that professors can teach and students can learn without other forces interfering in the process, limiting the pursuit of ideas. And yet, a recent incident at Ann Arbor suggests that is not always the case – that professors actually can shut down conversation and constrain academic freedom based purely on their politics. By this point, the…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | June 09, 2018 The Times of Israel The tragic events that took place on the Israeli-Gaza border in recent weeks were only the latest manifestation of a decades-long pattern: the Palestinians take extreme actions, the Israelis react and the international community and media come down hard on Israel. The result is always the same: Israel’s image is hurt, but the Palestinians ultimately suffer far more. How is this so? In the name of standing up for the…

By Sharon Nazarian | Senior Vice President for International Affairs January 25, 2018 The Forward Last week, American Zionists were told they could not be part of the feminist movement — again. A number of pro-Palestinian groups, most notably the Palestinian American Women’s Association, boycotted Saturday’s L.A. Women’s March. They wouldn’t attend due to the fact that actress Scarlett Johansson, known to be a proud Zionist, was one of the speakers. Hardly…

by: Jonathan Greenblatt | November 28, 2017 The Forward At the Anti-Defamation League, we have spent more than 100 years fighting anti-Semitism, often referred to as the world’s oldest hatred. And we have labored to distinguish between a more modern phenomenon –- when criticism of Israel can be considered legitimate political conversation and when it crosses the line into insidious anti-Semitism. We feel obligated to revisit the subject in light of a new book, “On…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | October 20, 2017 JTA Here we go again: The issue of how and why the United States should engage with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is back in the news. The announcement by the Trump administration that the U.S. will be pulling out of UNESCO over its biased treatment of Israel is only the latest manifestation of a fraught relationship between America and this U.N. body. Established soon after World War II as an effort to…

by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | September 23, 2016 JTA Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ statement before the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday revived old hatreds more than it broke new ground. It was little more than a rote diatribe against Israel and a call for international pressure to coerce the Jewish state in place of the hard give and take that happens at the negotiating table. It shed light on why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has endured so long through…

by: Marilyn Mayo | September 08, 2016 The Forward It’s not often that I get an opportunity to come face-to-face with one of the extremists whose activities, in my work as a research fellow at the Anti-Defamation League, I am charged with following and exposing. But on Wednesday night it happened that one of the most ardent spokespeople for anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories was appearing in New York City, my hometown. It was tempting to ignore that Christopher Bollyn was speaking…

by: Kenneth Jacobson | July 27, 2016 The Times of Israel Upon hearing the initial report that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was asking the Arab League to sue Great Britain for its Balfour Declaration of 1917, I thought this must be a satire of the sort put out by The Onion. I was wrong as it turned out. Apparently, Abbas is serious. So let’s treat his initiative seriously. The Balfour Declaration, a statement by the then Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, Lord Balfour,…

May 27, 2016 In April, ADL sent a letter to G4S recognizing its public statement that its decision to sell its business in Israel was unrelated to pressures from BDS campaigns.  In the public statement, G4S said it “reiterates that it does not support the anti-Israel boycott by BDS or any other group.”  This letter was sent following consultation with sources, including in Israel, who indicated that BDS has not been a motivating factor in G4S’s decision. Our…

by: Robert Trestan | March 24, 2016 The Times of Israel There is plenty of blame to go around when it comes to Janet Mock’s decision to cancel her “Redefining Realness” talk at Brown University this week. Ms. Mock, a transgender best-selling author, canceled her talk following pressure from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to reject the invitation due to Brown Hillel’s involvement. SJP cannot have it both ways — advocating to muzzle a speaker…

by: Ken Jacobson | February 15, 2016 The Forward Israel and its supporters are being held hostage by the notion that Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, is all that we have on the Palestinian side and that any successor would be far worse. The right’s response to this is either that there isn’t a hair’s breadth of difference between Abbas and Fatah on the one hand and Hamas on the other, or that Israel is better off having Hamas in power because then…