NEW YORK (JTA) – The mayors of the largest cities in the United States are launching a partnership with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to combat hate and bigotry.

Nearly 200 mayors have joined the agreement, which was announced Friday, since it was first circulated Tuesday night among the U.S. Conference of Mayors. The mayors are agreeing to explicitly condemn racism, white supremacy and bigotry, and to implement educational and public safety programs to safeguard vulnerable populations and discourage discrimination.

Signers include the mayors of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C, and Phoenix. [Read more…]

That’s the question animating much of the discussion of Saturday’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which quickly devolved into a brawl between rally-goers and a contingent of anti-fascist counter-protesters known as antifa. Following the clashes, a white supremacist rammed his car into the counter-protest, killing Heather Heyer, 32.

Leaders and activists across the spectrum – except U.S. President Donald Trump – have unequivocally condemned the racist, anti-Semitic rally. But they are divided on whether physically attacking white supremacists is justified simply because they are white supremacists. [Read more…]

White Supremacists march in Charlottesville Va. on August 12 2017. (Ron Kampeas)

(JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) joined critics of U.S. President Donald Trump in condemning his assertion that there was “blame on both sides” in Charlottesville, Va., where neo-Nazis faced off protesters.

“I think there’s blame on both sides,” Trump said at a news conference in New York Wednesday, four days after a 32-year-old counter-protester was killed by a car driven by one of the white supremacist marchers. [Read more…]

(JTA) – Jewish groups and Jewish leaders condemned the violence at a white supremacist event in Charlottesville, Virginia, and criticized U.S. President Donald Trump for saying that the hatred and violence came from “many sides.”

“The vile presence and rhetoric of the neo-Nazis who marched this weekend in Charlottesville is a reminder of the ever-present need for people of good will to stand strong, to speak loudly against hate, and act both to delegitimize those who spread such messages and to mitigate the harm done to the commonweal of our nation and to those that are the targets of hate messages,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in statement issued on Saturday evening, adding that “once again, hate has killed. [Read more…]

(JTA) – The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) decried as “dangerous” sermons by two California imams that included prayers for the annihilation of Jews.

On Friday, Sheikh Ammar Shahin of the Islamic Center of Davis called for the liberation of Jersualem’s Al-Aqsa mosque and the destruction of the Jews, according to a translation of his sermon published by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). [Read more…]

Donald Trump gets the crowd pumped up prior to the start of the WrestleMania 23 at Detroit’s Ford Field, April 1, 2007. (Leon Halip/WireImage/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The anonymous Reddit user who is claiming responsibility for the altered video depicting U.S. President Donald Trump body slamming someone with CNN superimposed over his head has a history of racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to violence, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a one-sentence email to a JTA request for a response to the ADL report on the GIF, “The video did not come from Reddit.” He did not say where the video came from. [Read more…]

(JTA) – HIAS hailed a U.S. federal appellate court’s decision upholding its appeal against U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel bans.

“The groundswell of public protest against the bans has been inspiring and unrelenting,” the lead Jewish group advocating for immigrants rights said in a statement Thursday after the decision by the Richmond, VA.–Fourth Circuit Court. “The people have spoken, as has the judicial branch.” [Read more…]

NEW YORK (JTA) – The head of the Anti-Defamation League drew parallels between Syria’s alleged use of a crematorium to dispose of bodies to actions committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the group’s national director, also called on the international community, including Russia, to take action to stop the violence perpetuated by the Syrian government under the leadership of President Bashar Assad. [Read more…]