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…
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September 28, 2017 Following the September 26 attack in the West Bank settlement of Har Adar, in which a Palestinian gunman killed three Israelis, extremist groups have been posting on various forums to celebrate the attacks and incite violence against Israel and Jews worldwide.
While no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, many have posted lauding the attacker and calling him “a heroic martyr,” as Hamas stated on the day of the attack. The Al-Tawhid…
ADL responded to an op-ed by a Jewish Voice for Peace staffer, who asserted that alt-right leader Richard Spencer was right in his remarks that Zionism is akin to white supremacy. Days after the horrific showcase of American far-right extremism in Charlottesville, America’s leading extremist, white supremacist leader Richard Spencer, appeared on an Israeli television newscast and compared his hate-filled ideology to Jewish nationalism, declaring it “white Zionism.”
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What is the source of our free speech rights? Free speech rights emanate from the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution[1] and from state constitutions. The U.S. Constitution limits the government’s ability to regulate speech based on content and it applies to all public colleges and universities. It serves as a floor, not a ceiling. State constitutions may grant more robust free speech rights than the U.S. Constitution, but never fewer. Is there a distinction between private and…
July 19, 2017 In recent months Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest and most influential Jewish pro-BDS group in the United States, has taken increasingly radical positions and has employed questionable tactics in pursuit of its mission to diminish support for Israel. The following are some of ADL’s main concerns with the group’s ideology and tactics.
Harassing LGBT Groups:
One of JVP’s longtime tactics has been to allege that Israel’s proud record of support for…
June 28, 2017 In early June, several Arab countries - notably Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain - announced that they were abruptly severing ties with Qatar over what they described as the latter’s support for terrorism. And even though what’s involved is mainly an internal Arab affair, some Qatari news sites published conspiratorial cartoons suggesting Israel was behind the diplomatic crisis. Some depicted Israel as a wolf in sheep’s clothing or as a…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening In commemoration of Women’s History Month, this resource helps educators engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the experience of women and gender in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution to women’s experience, instruction should…
February 21, 2017
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has confirmed Rasmea Odeh as a keynote speaker at their national conference in Chicago, March 31st – April 2nd.
Rasmea Odeh, a convicted terrorist, is the Associate Director at the Arab American Action Network in Chicago (AAAN). Odeh was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.
Founded by George Habash in 1967, PFLP became…
by: Jonathan A. Greenblatt | February 09, 2017 Your Holiness,
This week, in synagogues all over the world, Jews will read Shirat Ha-yam, the “Song of the Sea” from the book of Exodus that Miriam, Moses and the Israelites sang after they miraculously passed through the Sea of Reeds on dry land.
As a newly free people, they expressed their thanks to God for their redemption, saying:
Who is like you, o eternal, among the…
January 10, 2017 Last month, international action put the onus on Israel for the absence of peace with the Palestinians, with the December 22 UN Security Council resolution, followed by Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on December 28, both focusing on Israel’s settlement policy. In response to Secretary Kerry, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged: “For more than an hour, Kerry obsessed over the issue of settlements and hardly touched on…
December 21, 2016 Editor’s Note:A Muslim academic and a Jewish interfaith rabbi recently sat down together for a discussion about the spate of hate crimes that have taken place in the aftermath of the 2016 election campaign and what can happen with Jews and Muslims work together to combat hate speech.
The following conversation between Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Director of the Holocaust and Genocide Institute at Manhattan College, and Rabbi David Sandmel, Director of Interreligious…
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…
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School, Middle School, High School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Writing, Language, Speaking and Listening Commemorating National Hispanic Heritage Month
In commemoration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, we present this resource to help teachers engage students in thinking broadly and critically about the Hispanic American experience in all of its complexity. In highlighting the significant events as well as people that have made a substantial contribution…
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,…
by: Rabbi David Sandmel | June 05, 2016 The Times of Israel The General Conference of United Methodist Church recently concluded its quadrennial gathering, which this year was held in Portland, Oregon. I and many others in the Jewish community, not to mention many Christians as well, were pleased with the outcome of a number of votes on resolutions concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Inter alia, the Church rejected resolutions calling for divestment or for investment screens…
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…
by: Lorraine Array January 06, 2016
Last week, over 700 Jewish teens from across the United States and Canada gathered in Baltimore, MD as part of United Synagogue Youth’s International Convention. The Anti-Defamation League participated in the convention as a program partner to educate and empower the students to respond to anti-Semitism. At a time when global anti-Semitism is on the rise, college campuses are rife with anti-Israel bias and Jewish youth regularly hear…