How important is historical truth? The obvious answer is “very.” Just think of Holocaust denial, which is anti-Semitism built upon historical distortions. But what if an effort to counter hate is based on an inspirational story — and that story is a lie? That’s the moral quandary at the heart of journalist Steve Jimenez’s newly…
NEW YORK – Vandals defaced a statue of barrier-breaking baseball star Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn, scrawling a racial slur, a swastika and anti-Semitic language on the figure outside a minor league baseball park, police said on Wednesday. The hate crimes task force was investigating and no arrests had been made, a police spokeswoman said. The…
How do you confront hatred when it has no fixed address? Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League national director, attempts to pin down an answer to the question in his latest book, “Viral Hate.” Co-authored with privacy lawyer Christopher Wolf, the book chronicles the complications of countering hate on the Internet. The takeaway? It’s up to…
If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering where to draw the line between free speech, which should be defended, and hate speech, which should be combated. Well, I’ve found some useful insight in a series of articles that appeared the Jewish Tribune, the weekly journal of B’nai B’rith Canada. I’m not sure the articles were…
When it comes to Israel, freedom of speech has become its own battleground. We’ve seen plenty of it in New York already in 2013. Progressive groups defended a talk at Brooklyn College by two Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists in February, and right-wingers rallied around anti-Muslim blogger Pamela Geller this week. The two episodes…
Eleven mezuzahs and doorframes were set on fire in Brooklyn on Monday, in what New York police is treating as a hate crime. The vandalism took place at the Taylor White Public Houses, in the predominantly haredi section of South Williamsburg. Mezuzahs were scorched from the third floor all the way up to the 12th,…
The FBI has opened an investigation into possible civil rights violations after reports of hate speech at Oberlin College in Ohio, one of the first U.S. schools to integrate black and white students, a school spokesman said on Friday. The investigation by the FBI’s Cleveland office follows Oberlin’s decision to suspend classes and activities for…
Oberlin College canceled classes to convene a “day of solidarity” following a series of racial and anti-Semitic incidents. Classes at the school in northern Ohio were suspended on Monday after someone wearing a Ku Klux Klan-like hood and robe was seen walking on campus, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. “This event, in addition to the…
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