April 4, 2024 Hrag Vartanian Editor and CEO Hyperallergic Dear Mr. Vartanian: We were horrified and outraged by your cover story, “Israel Flattens Neighboring Pavilions at Venice Biennale,” (April 1). While labeled in fine print as an “April Fools” satire on your website, the piece has been flagged to us by many readers who found the article deeply insensitive and offensive. We agree with those readers – satire label notwithstanding, the article is little more…
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March 14, 2024 Mathias Döpfner CEO Axel Springer SE John F. Harris Global Editor in Chief Politico Brad Dayspring Executive Vice President, Global Communications and Brand Dear Mr. Döpfner, Mr. Harris and Mr. Dayspring: We were deeply concerned by Politico’s decision to publish a highly offensive political cartoon by Matt Wuerker, depicting a “punch card” suggesting that Israel and Jews are using “centuries of pogroms, antisemitism and the Holocaust”…
To the Editor:
The attempt by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow to conflate the Palestinian struggle with that of the civil rights movement in the U.S. is disingenuous and offensive. Let’s be clear: The Israeli-Palestinian crisis is complicated and there are few historic parallels to what’s happening in Israel and Gaza in the aftermath of the horrific Hamas massacre on Oct. 7. Equally unique and without parallels is the Black struggle for civil rights in America. From the…
D.D. Guttenplan
Editor The Nation
Dear Don,
A few years ago, we were in touch concerning your decision to engage Mohammed El-Kurd as the Palestine correspondent for The Nation. I raised a series of concerns based on his public record of hateful rhetoric. At the time, you made the case that most of his offensive tweets and remarks, which we had shared with you in a fact sheet, were made prior to his onboarding at the Nation. You also noted that, while some of his remarks &ldquo…
In this case, ADL joined with Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, and One Israel Fund urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and overturn a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit involving a lawsuit filed by families of dozens of U.S. servicemembers who were killed or injured by Hezbollah attacks. The lawsuit, relying on the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), seeks compensation from the Jammal Trust Bank (JTB), which provided financing to…
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has recently filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC. and Netchoice, LLC. v. Paxton. These cases concern two state statutes enacted in 2021 to regulate large social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter). Florida’s S.B. 7072 and Texas’ H.B. 20 each include provisions restricting social media companies’ ability to moderate harmful content on their…
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
To the Editor:
Re “The Tale of Two Invasions: What the Last Attack on Jenin Tells Us About Israel Now,” (July 10).
Tareq Baconi repeats the usual distortions and conspiracy theories about Israel in a clear attempt to discredit Israel among international circles. We are accustomed to seeing these spurious accusations from Palestinian and pro-Palestinian propagandists: Israel is an apartheid state. Israel rejects a two…
B.P.J. is a transgender girl in middle school who challenged her exclusion from participating in school sports by West Virginia's anti-transgender sports ban. A district court found that Title IX does not protect a transgender student’s right to participate in school sports consistent with the student’s gender identity. In a brief led by the National Women’s Law Center, ADL joined 51 organizations committed to gender justice to support B.P.J.’s appeal of…
At issue in this case is a wedding photographer who seeks a religious exemption to Louisville's anti-discrimination ordinance for the purpose of denying wedding-related services to same-sex couples. ADL joined 14 other faith-based organizations in a brief led by Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The brief argues that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment does not require granting the photographer a religious exemption to this neutral, generally…
Title 42 is a public health law that was invoked by the Trump Administration at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as a pretext to turn away asylum seekers, contrary to the expertise of public health professionals and U.S. obligations under national and international law. President Biden continued and expanded its use, long after other pandemic measures ended. In Huisha-Huisha v. Mayorkas, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Administration must end its use of Title 42 to expel…
In August 2022, Indiana passed a law banning abortion in the state under almost all circumstances. ADL joined a large interfaith coalition in this amicus brief, drafted by Americans United for the Separation of State, opposing the abortion ban, asserting that it “runs roughshod” over religious pluralism protected by the Indiana Constitution. The brief contends that Indiana’s new law, reflecting the intent of those legislators supporting it, “imposes one…
In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison (1977), the Supreme Court held that an employer is required to allow a religious accommodation for an employee under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 unless doing so would constitute an “undue hardship” for the business. However, the Court defined an “undue hardship” as anything that imposes “more than a de minimis cost” for the employer — a very low standard that has made it difficult over the years…
Re: “The ADL is wrong to attack the NYT’s brave investigative reporting on Hasidic yeshivas” by Ruth Messinger
To the editor:
While we greatly respect and value constructive feedback from Ruth Messinger on issues affecting the Jewish community, we were surprised by her suggestion that the ADL went too far in asking The New York Times to carefully consider the potential for its series of investigative articles on the Hasidic community’s education system to…
In this case, relatives of a victim of a 2017 ISIS terror attack allege that Twitter and other social media platforms aided and abetted an act of international terrorism and are secondarily liable under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) because the platforms allowed ISIS to use their platforms to recruit members, issue terrorist threats, spread propaganda, fundraise, and intimidate civilian populations. ADL’s brief highlights how terrorists and terrorist organizations use social media to…
This is the first time the Supreme Court is hearing a case regarding the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the key law that has been interpreted to provide near-total protection from liability to internet platforms for harm caused by user-generated content. The case, brought by the family of an American murdered by ISIS, alleges that YouTube knowingly hosted and recommended terrorist content, thus aiding and abetting terrorism. The lower court would not even let the case…
Lonnie Billard, a former drama teacher and substitute teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School, was fired after posting on Facebook that he was planning to marry a man. ADL joined 47 organizations committed to gender justice and LGBTQ+ rights in an amicus brief supporting Mr. Billard. The brief, filed before the Fourth Circuit, was led by the National Women’s Law Center. It points out that Title VII provides necessary workplace civil rights protections for nearly one million employees…
This case alleges a pattern of discriminatory conduct by the Town of Clarkstown, in coordination with a group called Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhood (“CUPON”), to block the purchase of property by an Orthodox Jewish school – Ateres Bais Yaakov Academy (“ABY”) — by any means necessary. ADL’s proposed brief, prepared by the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in support of ABY, sets forth a history of the Religious Land Use and…
This case involves a challenge to Indiana’s 2022 sports ban targeting transgender girls and young women. The ACLU brought the case on behalf of A.M., a 10-year-old transgender girl who was forced to leave her elementary school softball team as a result of the ban. A.M. won a preliminary injunction finding that the ban likely violates Title IX, and Indiana appealed. ADL joined 58 other organizations in an amicus brief led by the National Women’s Law Center in support of A.M. The…
This case, directly relevant to ADL’s Democracy Initiatives, involves a claim by the North Carolina General Assembly that under the oft-discredited “independent state legislature theory” it has the sole power to set the state’s congressional map, and this power cannot be challenged under the state’s constitution in state courts. ADL’s brief, joined by The Sikh Coalition, The Union for Reform Judaism, Central Conference of American Rabbis, Women of Reform…
In this case against the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), a Sikh USMC Captain and three Sikh Marine recruits filed suit to be able to serve with their articles of faith. This included a request for the recruits to attend Marine recruit training while maintaining their turbans and beards, which was prohibited in their initial limited religious accommodations. ADL, the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty, and Interfaith Alliance filed a motion to participate as amicus curiae in support of the…