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REPORT: Fighting Antisemitism — Monitoring and Responding to GDL
To understand how ADL responds when organized hate comes to town, let’s take you to Georgia earlier this year, when individuals affiliated with the Goyim Defense League (GDL) set out on a “Name the Nose Tour” — their words — to antagonize Jews and to turn communities against the Jewish people. They aimed to provoke reactions, even violence, that they could film or livestream to entertain followers and, ultimately, feed GDL’s coffers.
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| GDL in Texas in 2021 |
Our ADL Center on Extremism alerted law enforcement. We sent an advisory to Jewish community leaders to educate them, provide advance notice and share tips for best practices if GDL were to show up — do not engage with these individuals, for example — and offered our support.
ADL staff members remained on-call into the wee hours of each morning. We continued to monitor GDL's activity, working closely with law enforcement. We made sure targeted communities knew they were not alone.
As one affected rabbi put it, “If their intention was to make the Jewish people in my neighborhood feel more proud and more connected to their neighbors, they far surpassed their goal.”
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Campus Climate Concerns: ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt warns on CNN.com about how
“The threat of antisemitism has been growing across American society, and colleges are not immune. But while antisemitism nationally has diverse causes, often including ties to White supremacy, campuses more frequently witness boycotts and demonization of Israel that lead to attacking or ostracizing Jewish students because of their own perceived or actual support for Israel.”
The most recent challenge for Jewish students has come in regard to the Palestinian Writes Festival on the Penn campus. Thankfully, colleges have new tools to fight hate. At our urging, the White House has elevated the priority of the fight against antisemitism through the National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. Colleges and universities are a significant focus of this plan.
→ Read the full op-ed by Jonathan.
Dear Meta...:
The ADL Center for Technology and Society recently contacted the Oversight Board of Meta, the corporate parent of Facebook and Instagram. As the ADL letter says: “Holocaust denial and distortion on Meta platforms, on any forum, online or offline, is unequivocally hate speech. The Oversight Board must direct Meta to act accordingly by quickly removing violating posts like the one at issue in this case. Waiting for appeals to rise to the Oversight Board is unacceptable.”
→ READ the full letter.
Shaking Hands, Changing Policies: During the UN General Assembly, ADL staff and leaders met with visiting dignitaries from approximately 25 countries, including heads of state and foreign ministers. Among the issues discussed were the rise in global antisemitism, the safety of Jewish communities worldwide and the need for countries to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also joined a Jewish communal briefing with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu where he raised the need to continue pushing the issue of fighting antisemitism and hate online, including in the AI space, while continuing to build hope, as exemplified by the Abraham Accords and ADL’s work as a founding partner in the Manara Center.
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Please take the time today to tell your elected officials to COMBAT hate. Given the alarming levels of antisemitic incidents, lawmakers must act now to stop the spread of hate and make our communities safer. Use this quick ADL form to urge your elected leaders to implement ADL's COMBAT blueprint for transformational change targeting antisemitism at its core.
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The @ADL_tracker feed of news and developments in antisemitism activities.
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