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21 Results

Top 10 Moments of Inspiration and Hope in 2021

Report

Amanda Gorman recites her 2021 inaugural poem, "The Hill We Climb"

As the year draws to a close, ADL looks back on the moments from 2021 that gave us hope and encouragement that our hundred-plus-year fight against antisemitism and hate is making progress. And there were plenty of big, inspirational moments to choose from in 2021: A $26 million verdict against the white supremacists responsible for Charlottesville; the launch of a $1.1 billion foundation to help prevent Anti-Asian hate crimes; and meaningful legal victories against racially motivated…

December 20, 2021

Members of ADL Task Force Call on Secretary Blinken to Broaden Priority-2 Refugee Admissions Status to Afghan Minority Groups

Press Release

New York, NY, November 29, 2021… Members of ADL’s (the Anti-Defamation League’s) Task Force on Middle East Minorities issued a letter today calling on United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken to broaden the criteria for Priority-2 refugee admissions status to include Afghan nationals from ethnic and religious minority groups that have a well-founded fear of persecution under Taliban rule. Vulnerable ethnic and religious groups are now in much greater peril since…

November 29, 2021

ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities Expresses Grave Concern About Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan

Press Release

New York, NY, August 18, 2021 … ADL’s (Anti-Defamation League) Task Force on Middle East Minorities today expressed deep concern about the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban, an Islamist extremist group known for its horrific brutality against women, children, and religious and other minorities. The Task Force issued the following statement: We have no doubt that Taliban rule will prove to be devastating for Afghanistan’s minority communities. We call…

August 18, 2021

ADL Statement on Potential of Forced Cremations During Coronavirus Oubtreak in the UK

Press Release

New York, NY, March 23, 2020 ... ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) released the following statement today concerning the Coronavirus bill currently circulating in the House of Commons that would allow local authorities to cremate a body against the wishes of the deceased. ADL supports the efforts of Jewish and Muslim communities to assure that religious rights and sensitivities are accommodated within government public health measures, in particular with regard to cremation, when…

March 23, 2020

ADL, Religious Scholars Work with Oberammergau to Remove Anti-Semitism from its renowned Passion Play

Article

by: Rabbi David Sandmel January 21, 2020 Update: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Oberammergau Passion Play has been postponed until 2022. In 1634, the residents of the picturesque village of Oberammergau in the Bavarian Alps made a vow to perform a passion play every ten years as a sign of their gratitude to God for having been spared from a deadly plague. Today the Oberammergau Passion Play is performed every ten years, in years ending in zero, and will also be performed in 2034 …

January 21, 2020

Task Force on Middle Eastern Minorities Condemns the Arrest of Over 100 Christians in Iran

Press Release

New York, NY, December 14 ... ADL's Task Force on Middle East Minorities condemns the recent arrest of over 100 Christians in Iran. The timing of the arrests follows a pattern of harassment that Iran has used in the past toward its religious minorities, intimidating them just weeks before their religious holidays, in this example just weeks before Christmas. According to reports, the arrests targeted Christian converts of Muslim backgrounds. This wave of arrests is seen as part of a…

December 14, 2018

ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities Welcomes Passage of Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act

Press Release

New York, NY, December 14 … ADL’s Task Force on Middle East Minorities welcomes Congress’s passage of the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and Accountability Act (H.R. 390) and President Trump signing this important bill into law. The Act, which passed both chambers of Congress with wide bipartisan support, ensures that U.S. humanitarian assistance in Syria and Iraq goes to ethnic and religious minority individuals and communities that are in greatest need,…

December 14, 2018

ADL Launches Task Force to Protect Minority Communities of Middle East

Press Release

New York, NY, November 8, 2018 … ADL today announced the launch of a new task force focused on promoting the protection of minority communities in the Middle East. The ADL Task Force on Middle East Minorities will educate, advocate and elevate the issues challenging these important and all-too-often overlooked communities across the region, including religious, ethnic, sexual and gender minorities, and other groups who face governmental and societal repression and discrimination…

November 08, 2018

Faith Leaders Urge Tillerson: Appoint State Department Envoy to Monitor Anti-Semitism

Press Release

New York, NY, June 28, 2017 … Nearly two dozen of the nation’s most prominent religious leaders – including representatives of the Catholic, Muslim, Protestant, Evangelical, Hindu, Sikh and Jewish faiths – have signed on to an open letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging him to fill the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism at the State Department. The letter was written by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and circulated among…

June 28, 2017

ADL Leaders and Pope Francis Join to Reaffirm Jewish-Catholic Relations and Denounce Anti-Semitism

Press Release

Vatican City, February 9, 2017 … A delegation of top leaders from the Anti-Defamation League met on Thursday with Pope Francis at the Vatican, where they voiced support for the pontiff’s ongoing efforts to denounce anti-Semitism and praised his advocacy on behalf of refugees, as well as his efforts to encourage greater understanding among Christians, Muslims and Jews. “We know you understand and share our concern about the resurgence of anti-Semitism, especially in…

February 09, 2017

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…

October 27, 2015

Pope Francis and the Argentine Rabbi

News

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…

April 18, 2013

ADL and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ"

News

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…

January 02, 2013

ADL Deeply Disturbed by Archbishop's Remarks Likening Politicians in Trinidad and Tobago to Jews

Press Release

New York, NY, October 25, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said it was deeply disturbed by disparaging remarks about Judaism from Archbishop Edward Gilbert, the leader of the Catholic Church in the Port of Spain, who reportedly likened politicians in Trinidad and Tobago to Jews and suggested that, "...they have the mindset of the original Jewish people." Archbishop Gilbert was reported to have made the remarks during a Jubilee Mass held October 24 at Our Lady of Perpetual…

October 25, 2011

After Bishop's Latest Anti-Semitic Writings, ADL Says Pius X Society "Has No Place" In Mainstream Church

Press Release

New York, NY, October 19, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on the Vatican to publicly repudiate anti-Semitic statements by Bishop Richard Williamson, a member of a schismatic Catholic group known as Society of St. Pius X, in which he suggested that Jews are responsible for the death of Jesus. "Bishop Williamson's remarks are further evidence that the Society of St. Pius X has no place in the mainstream church," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "It is…

October 19, 2011

Vatican's Demand That Bishop Publicly Recant Holocaust Denial A "Major Positive Step Forward"

Press Release

New York, NY, February 4, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed as a "major positive step forward" the Vatican's demand that Bishop Richard Williamson publicly and unequivocally recant his Holocaust denial if he is ever to regain his clerical responsibilities in the Church. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement: We sincerely appreciate that Pope Benedict XVI heard our pain and anguish over the acceptance back into…

February 04, 2009

ADL Welcomes Pope's Condemning of Holocaust Denial and Affirming of Vatican II

Press Release

New York, NY, January 29, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's condemnation of Holocaust denial and expression of solidarity with the Jewish people. "We are heartened that the Pope heard our deep concern about the future of Catholic-Jewish relations," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "He responded to our anguish over the virulent Holocaust denial by Bishop Richard Williamson, but also to the deeper question of the continuing authority…

January 29, 2009

ADL Says Pope Benedict's Exoneration of Jews in the Death of Jesus "Historical" and Builds On Vatican II

Press Release

New York, NY, March 2, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) welcomed as "an important and historic moment" the publication of a new book by Pope Benedict XVI that includes a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus. Pope Benedict's book, "Jesus of Nazareth – Part II," excerpts of which were released today, builds an argument against the anti-Jewish concept of "deicide" through a thorough reading and analysis of the Gospels, leading to his conclusion that…

March 02, 2011

Latin Mass Cause for Concern

News

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…

July 11, 2007

Nostra Aetate

Backgrounder

In 1965, the Second Vatican Council made historic changes to church policies and theology. Among them was Nostra Aetate, Latin for "In Our Time," a document that revolutionized the Catholic Church's approach to Jews and Judaism after nearly 2000 years of pain and sorrow. Section four of Nostra Aetate repudiates the centuries-old "deicide" charge against all Jews, stresses the religious bond shared by Jews and Catholics, reaffirms the eternal covenant between God and the People of…

March 05, 2017