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Dear John,
Jessica K. is proud to be Jewish. But she’s afraid to wear her Hebrew nameplate necklace. She worries when her father goes out wearing his yarmulke. Her concerns are rooted in both the threats of antisemitic violence she’s personally experienced and the deadly antisemitic attacks we’ve seen in recent years. Since the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, she’s especially anxious about what could happen at her brother’s bar mitzvah.
“I’m scared that someone [dangerous] might come to the temple,” Jessica says. “We’re at a really big moment where this could be another Pittsburgh.”
No one — especially not children — should live in fear of being victimized by antisemitism, of being attacked because of their faith.
Please help ADL fight antisemitism and hate of all kinds. Give now and your gift of $50, $75 or $100 will automatically double to make twice the impact to Fight Hate For Good!
Jessica already knows first-hand how antisemitism can escalate to violence. When she was 15, she was bullied for being Jewish. After she reported the harassment to her school, the harassment persisted and the bully threatened to bring in his parents’ gun and shoot Jessica. With the educators unwilling to take action, she had to change schools.
Fortunately, her family soon found ADL and were introduced to the community of support they needed. ADL helped Jessica cope with the trauma she experienced and invited her to become a teen trainer. With your support, Jessica now educates and empowers other young people to stop the kind of antisemitism and hate she had to endure.
When you give to ADL, you also support programs that give students, teachers and administrators the tools to respond to — and prevent — antisemitic and other bias-based harassment in schools.
Together, we can stop hate before it turns into violence. And we can root out bigoted myths and stereotypes before they turn into hate and violence.
“It’s important to take action to help ADL because not only does ADL try to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, but it tries to stop hate in general, and there’s a huge need for it,” Jessica says.
Help ADL Fight Hate For Good today. Act now when your gift will automatically double!
| Fighting Antisemitism and Hate of All Kinds, |
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| Jonathan Greenblatt |
| CEO and National Director |
| ADL |
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