ADL

On , we honor the end of slavery in the U.S. and the long struggle for Black freedom. Today, we reflect on that history and recognize the importance in the fight to secure justice and fair treatment to all — a world free from bigotry and hate.

ADL and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law urge city officials in Somerville, MA to reject a proposed BDS ordinance that would require the city to boycott and divest from companies that do business with Israel. This BDS ordinance is divisive, harmful and unconstitutional, and will only incite further hostility toward Jewish and Israeli residents, harm local businesses and expose taxpayers to higher costs.

Read more: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-brandeis-center-urge-somerville-city-officials-oppose-israel-boycott

ADL has filed a complaint with U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights alleging a Jewish student was subjected to persistent, escalating and severe antisemitic harassment and assault while enrolled in the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado.

In one instance, students allegedly attempted to play a game called "Jew touch tag," saying Jews were “dirty” and “contaminated.” In another, a classmate allegedly fashioned a charging cord into a lasso, threw it around a Jewish student's neck, dragged him backward from a chair, and called him an antisemitic slur.

As ADL's James Pasch shared, “The record here is overwhelming: written pleas from the student’s parents, formal school reports and a police investigation all point to the conclusion that antisemitic harassment at Southern Hills Middle School was pervasive, escalating and severe." Yet despite repeatedly being notified, the school district allegedly failed to remedy the hostile environment and provided no meaningful response to stop the harassment. This is a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.

Learn more: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-files-title-vi-complaint-against-colorado-school-district-alleging

Hate has found a home online, and for far too many young people, it's become entertainment.

That's what Oren Segal, head of the ADL Center on Extremism, warns in this new The Times of Israel piece. The ADL Center on Extremism spends every day in the darkest corners of the internet so the rest of us don't have to. What they're finding is alarming: Young people aren't just stumbling into hate-filled spaces, they're finding community there. As Oren puts it, "The psychology is the same psychology that is attractive to all of us. We all want to do something meaningful, belong to a group, not feel alone."

So far in 2026, the ADL Center on Extremism has sent more than 100 threat alerts to law enforcement agencies. As Oren Segal says, "Our job is to tell communities who’s coming after them."

The work is relentless and all of it critical to keeping Jewish communities, and communities everywhere, safe.

Learn more:

Hate as entertainment: Youth finding community in nihilistic online antisemitism, warns ADL Dark corners of the internet, steeped in Jew-hatred, provide connections for the disaffected, says the head of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism

So far in 2026, ADL has documented 29 incidents targeting synagogues worldwide, including four in just the first 10 days of June. Canadian and American synagogues have been hit hard, with 10 and 7 attacks respectively to date.

Targeting houses of worship, and those who pray in them, is a deeply troubling trend that demands attention.
https://www.adl.org/resources/article/decade-attacks-synagogues-worldwide

A Decade of Attacks on Synagogues Worldwide ADL has tracked roughly 80 attacks on synagogues worldwide in the past decade — with the pace accelerating sharply since the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel

Free history lesson: "Antisemitism" wasn't coined as a catch-all term for prejudice against anyone who speaks a Semitic language. It was popularized in the 1870s by Wilhelm Marr, a German antisemite who deliberately rebranded "Jew-hatred" with a more scientific-sounding term to make it seem modern, respectable and academic.

From its inception, the term referred specifically to hostility toward Jews. That's not a matter of opinion; it's a matter of history and definition.

Anti-Arab discrimination is real. It is wrong. But it is not antisemitism.

When someone presenting themselves as an authority on human rights can't grasp such a basic distinction, we've got a serious problem.

Redefining the word doesn't erase Jew-hatred, Ms. Albanese. It just makes it easier to deny.