Dear John,

Yesterday, I stood alongside Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and other elected officials, faith leaders and community partners to declare our resolve that the repeated violence and harassment of Orthodox Jews in this borough is unacceptable and must stop now.

In recent months, there has been a horrifying series of incidents targeting New York’s Orthodox Jews, ranging from verbal confrontations to brutal assaults. This, sadly, ties in to new FBI data showing that once again in 2018, Jews were by far the most frequent targets of religion-based hate crimes.

Targeted for Looking Jewish

In the recent incidents in New York, the ‘offense’ of the victims was being — and looking — Jewish. As Evan Bernstein, the head of our NY/NJ regional office said, “This is not normal, and it is not acceptable. No one in our city should have to live in fear simply because of who they are or how they worship.”

Now is the time to take action. At the gathering at Brooklyn Borough Hall, we announced that ADL’s flagship No Place For Hate educational program will be doubled in scope in Brooklyn schools. ADL will provide the initial $250,000 investment to fund this expansion of No Place For Hate, which will focus on the neighborhoods of Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Boro Park.

No Place For Hate teaches inclusiveness and how to fight discrimination in schools so that students learn about respect and unity rather than bias and division. Over 1.3 million students last year, in schools from Florida to Alaska, went through ADL’s educational programs.

As Borough President Adams said, “Our youth are our society’s most capable change agents, and they are never too young to learn that hate speech or any other forms of intolerant expression are wrong, and must always be denounced when it is encountered.”

New FBI Hate Crime Data

In another sobering reminder of the challenges that you and I face together as part of the ADL community, the FBI just released a new report showing that nearly 60 percent of the incidents they categorized as religion-based were targeted against Jews and Jewish institutions.

Overall, race-based hate crime was the most common type of hate crime, with African-Americans the most frequently targeted; and with anti-Hispanic hate crimes climbing for the third year in a row. Another noteworthy finding was the surge in crimes against the LGBTQ community, and transgender individuals in particular.

ADL strongly urges Congress to immediately pass the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to Hate, Assault, and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act. By improving hate crime training, prevention, best practices and data collection, we can stem hate crimes nationwide.

ADL has updated our interactive hate crime map with the latest FBI data.

Never Is Now

Another way to fight against this rising tide of hatred is by joining me at the world’s largest gathering about fighting anti-Semitism. If you haven’t registered yet, I urge you to do so now before we sell out! Never Is Now, ADL’s Annual Summit on Anti-Semitism and Hate convenes on November 21 at the Javits Center in New York.

At Never Is Now, I will be giving my annual update on the State of Hate in 2019, reviewing both alarming trendlines and signs of hope and progress as we come to the end of a tumultuous year. I will share a new set of updates to our benchmark Global 100 Anti-Semitism index, showing important shifts in anti-Semitic attitudes around the world.

There will be two critically important plenary panels on this issue. Anti-Semitism Here and Now: What Can Be Done to Reverse Hate in America brings in organizational leaders and prominent journalists to explore why extremists are feeling emboldened and what can be done to change this course, and Global Approaches to Fighting Anti-Semitism brings together prominent figures from the US, Israel and the UK to discuss ways to combat this trend as a world-wide phenomenon.

One of the aspects of Never Is Now that I am most looking forward to is meeting with the hundreds of students who will be joining us at the event. They are vital voices both in addressing anti-Semitism today, and mitigating this struggle in the future, and as much as we hope to inspire them, the idealism and intensity of these students also inspires us.

I also look forward to hearing from our 2019 Courage Against Hate Award winner, Hamdi Ulukaya, Chobani founder & CEO. Hamdi founded the wonderful Tent Partnership for Refugees and he, like last year’s honoree Tim Cook of Apple, is an important voice in encouraging CEOs to change their playbook to be more involved in the world around them.

I will see you there among the many committed, accomplished and innovative experts in the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of hate who will stand together at Never Is Now on November 21 in New York City.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Greenblatt

CEO and National Director

ADL