by: Jonathan Greenblatt | February 05, 2018 USA Today The cold-blooded murder of Blaze Bernstein has horrified the Jewish community and indeed all Americans. It is hard to come to terms with the shocking brutality that ended the life of such a bright and promising young man. At just 19, Blaze already had shown an aptitude for writing and the arts, even while excelling in a rigorous molecular sciences program at the University of Pennsylvania.
Blaze will always be remembered for the…
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Teach students about the importance of diverse literature and engage them in a study on the diversity of books in their classroom or school library.
Washington, DC, June 28, 2017…The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) will join with representatives of America’s leading civil rights and religious organizations on Thursday to present at the Justice Department’s Hate Crimes Subcommittee Summit, where Attorney General Jeff Sessions will address participants.
ADL’s experts will participate in workshops and roundtables and offer a series of recommendations and strategies on how to improve hate crime training, reporting,…
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…
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…
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…
December 01, 2016 There has been a lot of debate lately about whether media outlets should use the term “alt right.” Some argue that the term whitewashes or normalizes a grouping that is, at its core, racist and anti-Semitic. The problem is not so much with the term “alt right” but in how people define or not define it. It is crucial that whenever the term “alt right” is used, it be defined clearly and put in the proper context.
The…
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…
July 14, 2016
It has been a rough summer as the topic of guns, violence, police and bias scream across the news headlines and our smart phones.
Still reeling from the June 12 massacre of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, a few short weeks later we watched on video the back-to-back shooting deaths by police of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, LA and Philando Castile in Falcon Heights, MN. Just a day later, as cities across the country engaged in protests over these…
by: Jinnie Array June 14, 2016
The unspeakable tragedy that took place at the Pulse Club in Orlando, FL in the early morning of June 12 brings with it a wide range of emotions for people across the country and world. Those feelings include anger, sorrow, loss, hopelessness, horror, fear, rage and also—a sense of powerlessness. It is easy to feel powerless when you think there is nothing you can do: nothing you can do about the hate, the gun violence, the terrorism and the extremist…
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…
Table Talk: Family Conversations About Current Events
For Parents, Families, and Caregivers | 12 and up Talking with Children about Gun ViolenceThe issue of gun violence and mass shootings is in the news frequently. Young people are usually aware of what is happening and will want to talk about it. However, it is a sensitive, scary, and potentially painful topic. Before raising the matter with young people, consider your child’s personality. To what extent will the conversation…
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…
ADL Launches "50 States Against Hate," New Campaign for Tougher Hate Crimes Laws All Across the Country Atlanta, GA, August 17, 2015 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today announced the formation of a new campaign to improve legal response to hate crimes across the United States. 50 States Against Hate: An Initiative for Stronger Hate Crime Laws will work toward the passage of hate crime laws in the five states which do not have them – Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina…
June 22, 2015
As we grieve, protest and further investigate the horrific murder of nine African American parishioners at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, many people are asking: What should we tell the children?
Parents, family members and others are sometimes uneasy about discussing issues of violence and injustice with children because they want to protect them from terrible and scary topics. However, it is important that children have a language for…
by: Lorraine Array March 23, 2015
Recent incidents around the world remind us of the power of hate and vitriol to permeate our religious, cultural and national borders. ISIS continues to expand its alliances and fear-mongering tactics. The world is in many ways paralyzed to see a way forward, and the need for solutions capable of building bridges of understanding and respect has never been greater.
In this spirit, in early 2013, the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Connecticut Office…
Crime in the Name of Hate For Law Enforcement Read the full comprehensive report, The Aryan Circle: Crime in the Name of Hate (PDF).
The Aryan Circle is a large, growing and dangerous white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Texas, though it has a presence in a number of other states. It is active both in prisons and on the streets. It is an extreme and violent group, with a long track record of murder, including the deaths of two police officers in Bastrop, Louisiana, in…
Engage students in activities that get them to think broadly and critically about the Black experience in all of its complexity.
GRADE LEVEL: Elementary School
COMMON CORE STANDARDS: Reading, Speaking and Listening The First Girl to Pitch a Shutout in the Little League World Series
In 2014 Mo’Ne Davis, a 13-year-old girl, made news headlines as the first girl to ever pitch a shutout in the Little League World series. At that time she was considered the “most talked about baseball player on earth right now” according to many observers in the sports world. Mo’Ne (pronounced Moh-nay…
GRADE LEVEL: K-12 Bullying is a major problem in our schools. When it targets aspects of a person’s identity, it is called identity-based bullying, and may include bias about appearance, race, culture, gender and gender expression, language, religion, socioeconomic status, disability and sexual orientation. According to the CDC’s 2024 Youth Violence Prevention study focused on bullying, 1 in 5 high school students report being bullied in school in the past year. That same CDC…