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143-512: The Simon Wiesenthal Center ( SWC ) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by Rabbi Marvin Hier . The center is known for Holocaust research and remembrance, hunting Nazi war criminals, combating anti-Semitism, tolerance education, defending Israel, and its Museum of Tolerance . The center publishes a seasonal magazine, In Motion . The center has close ties to public and private agencies, and regularly meets with elected officials of

286-564: A lynch mob abducted Frank from prison and killed him. Frank was granted a posthumous pardon from Georgia in 1986 after ADL requests. The historian Leonard Dinnerstein writes that until after World War II, the ADL had limited impact, particularly less than the American Jewish Committee (AJC). One of the ADL's early campaigns occurred in the 1920s when it organized a media effort and consumer boycott against The Dearborn Independent ,

429-454: A "blacklist". ADL expressed concern over Israeli legislative proposals requiring that NGOs publicize if they receive funding primarily from non-Israeli governments, a bill mostly opposed by centrist and left-wing and supported by right-wing Jewish American groups. In 2022, the ADL criticized the government formed by Benjamin Netanyahu in his sixth term , which included representatives from

572-470: A "threat assessment" report on a Black Indianapolis activist who worked with the Deadly Exchange campaign in opposition to exchange programs between American and Israeli police. The email contained a photo and personal information about the activist. The ADL employee who shared the email with The Guardian said that "threat assessments" are conducted regularly by the ADL and that many staff members opposed

715-508: A Jewish service organization , in the wake of the contentious murder conviction of Leo Frank . ADL subsequently split from B'nai B'rith and continued as an independent US section 501(c)(3) nonprofit . In an early campaign, ADL and allied groups pressured the automaker Henry Ford , who had published virulently antisemitic propaganda. In the 1930s, ADL worked with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to oppose pro-Nazi activity in

858-719: A Paris courthouse for accusing the French-based Committee for Charity and Support for the Palestinians (CBSP) of sending funds to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. In its filing of the suit, the CBSP labelled the accusations "ridiculous", stating that its charitable work consisted of providing aid to some 3,000 Palestinian orphans. The court ruled that documents produced by the Wiesenthal Center established no "direct or indirect participation in financing terrorism" on

1001-466: A campaign criticizing Morningstar, Inc. ), a campaign the ADL collaborated on prior to the 2020 acquisition. The ADL said it would contribute funding to JLens. The ADL tracked rapid growth in hate speech and harassment on Twitter after Elon Musk bought the social network in 2022. In early September 2023, Musk liked and replied to a tweet by the Irish white nationalist Keith Woods that called for banning

1144-615: A constituency of more than 400,000 families. The center maintains offices throughout the United States , and in Canada , Europe , Israel and Argentina . Hier is the recipient of two Academy Awards —as co-producer and co-writer for the 1981 documentary Genocide , about the Holocaust , and as co-producer of the 1997 documentary The Long Way Home , which offers new insights into the critical post World War II period between 1945 and 1948 and

1287-576: A defamation trial, a case it won in 1984. Other cases were dismissed before reaching trial. The ADL appealed the case to a superior court, which upheld the verdict, and the Supreme Court ultimately declined to take the case. The ADL paid the original $ 10 million plus interest in 2004. In 2003, the ADL opposed an advertising campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called "Holocaust on Your Plate" that compared animals killed in

1430-482: A drive launched that year by the center to track down former Nazis for World War II-era crimes before they die of old age. According to the center, about 2,000 Nazi war criminals entered Canada illegally by providing false documents, but the Canadian government largely ignored their presence until the mid-1980s. It also claimed that when they were exposed, the government made their deportations harder to carry out. One example

1573-483: A folk-hero among the city's 700,000 Jews; the center is perpetually deluged by $ 10 donations from even the most non-observant. Last year, when many other Jewish organizations had to cut corners and go begging, the center pulled in $ 9.7 million in contributions, and another $ 5.3 million for its new Museum of Tolerance (scheduled to open next year adjacent to the center on Pico Boulevard). And Hier has powerful friends who might withhold their significant contributions to many of

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1716-549: A formalized way." Later, in the early stages of the First Gulf War , the center released a report which accused Western companies of complicity in Iraq's chemical weapons program. The report said that 207 companies, 86 of which were West German, had supplied Iraq with chemical weapons components as late as 1989. German companies had sold Zyklon-B to Iraq and they also helped it build gas chambers - modeled on those which were used by

1859-533: A former Silicon Valley tech executive and former Obama administration official who had not operated within the Jewish communal organization world prior to his hiring, would succeed Abraham Foxman as national director in July 2015. Foxman had served as national director since 1987. The ADL board of directors renewed Greenblatt's contract as CEO and national director in fall 2020 for a second five-year term. The national chair of

2002-564: A fund that funds inter-community relationship projects, and cover the plaintiffs' legal costs of $ 175,000. It settled with three remaining plaintiffs in 2002 for $ 178,000. In 1994, ADL became involved in a dispute between neighbors in Denver, Colorado. The Aronson family reported this dispute to the ADL, which involved the Quigley family making antisemitic comments. The ADL advised the Aronsons to record

2145-543: A high-profile campaign composed of anti-Israel big lies to help destroy the Jewish State by any and all means". The report also said that BDS attacks Israel's entire economy and society, holding all (Jewish) Israelis as collectively guilty. On March 8, 2007, the head of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Stanley Trevor Samuels, was convicted (and later acquitted in an appeal) of defamation by

2288-877: A joint statement of public apology on their respective websites. Marvin Hier Hier was born in 1939 in New York City . His Jewish parents came from Poland ; his father worked as a lamp polisher after arriving in New York in 1917. Hier grew up on the Lower East Side attending the Rabbi Shlomo Kluger Yeshiva on Houston Street for elementary school and the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School for high-school and six years post-high school. Hier received smicha in 1962 from Rabbi Mendel Kravitz , rosh yeshiva of

2431-585: A lawsuit against the Washington City Paper . Hier was skeptical of the reunification of Germany because he feared that anti-Semitism might reemerge in a reunified Germany . On February 9, 1990, he sent a letter to Chancellor Helmut Kohl and in it, he expressed his fears: "I am not among those in the cheering section applauding the rush towards German reunification." In his reply to Hier's letter three weeks later, Kohl expressed his disappointment "at how little many opponents of German unity take note of

2574-732: A leaked list of members of Oath Keepers , an American far-right, anti-government militia. Of 38,000 names on that list, the ADL identified "at least 373 Oath Keepers currently serving in law enforcement", plus 117 active duty military, and 1,100 former law enforcement officers. In November 2022, ADL acquired JLens, a pro-Israel advocacy group started in 2012 which campaigns against incentives for economic disengagement with Israel in environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) investing guidelines. JLens publishes company rankings based on participation in boycotts of Israel and publishes guidelines on investing used by around 30 Jewish companies with portfolios totaling around $ 200 million. JLens launched

2717-851: A list of the "ten leading organizations responsible for maligning Israel in the US," which has included ANSWER , the International Solidarity Movement , and Jewish Voice for Peace for its call for BDS. The ADL published a similar list in 2013. Alongside similar statements from StandWithUs and American Jewish Committee representatives, Greenblatt condemned the United Nations Human Rights Council 's (UNHRC) list of companies doing business with Jewish settlements in Israeli-occupied territories, issued in February 2020, calling it

2860-535: A month. Subsequently, in September 2020, the campaign organized celebrity supporters including Sacha Baron Cohen , Kim Kardashian , and Mark Ruffalo . In 2020, the ADL trained staff to edit Misplaced Pages pages, but after the project caused Misplaced Pages editors to criticize this as a conflict of interest , the ADL said it suspended the project in April 2021. At the time, the ADL was considered a reliable source on Misplaced Pages, and

3003-768: A project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles run by Marvin Hier, is set to be built in Jerusalem, Israel. In 2013, The Forward called Hier the "most overpaid" executive of a Jewish non-profit. Hier's family received nearly $ 1.3 million in 2012 from the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In 2017 Hier welcomed the King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles together with Rabbi Abraham Cooper paving

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3146-464: A publication published by American automobile industrialist Henry Ford . The publication contained virulently antisemitic articles and quoted heavily from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion , an antisemitic hoax. The ADL and allied organizations pressured Ford until he issued an apology in 1927. In 1933 the ADL moved offices to Chicago and Richard E. Gutstadt became director of national activities. With

3289-434: A survey in 2019 exploring online harassment in video games. It found that the majority of surveyed players experienced severe harassment of some kind, and the ADL recommended increased content moderation from game companies and governments. On the other hand, the survey found that over half of players experienced some form of positive community in video games. A separate, earlier survey of the general population found that around

3432-440: A third of people have experienced some form of online harassment. In July 2017, ADL announced that they would be developing profiles on 36 alt-right and alt-lite leaders. In 2019 and 2020 ADL executives and staff testified multiple times in front of Congressional committees concerning the dangers of right-wing domestic extremists. In a report from 2018, the ADL noted that the majority of domestic extremist-related murders in

3575-552: Is Vladimir Katriuk , who the center said was involved in the Katyn massacre in 1943 and who came to Canada in 1951. Katriuk, who denied the allegations, died in 2015 before he could be extradited to Russia to face charges. In 2022, the Center published their first report about the rise of the anti-semitic Black Hebrew Israelite movement. The report profiled the Israelites' belief system, in

3718-546: Is both intellectually dishonest and damaging to our reputation as experts in extremism." The newspaper reported that the speech, which "put opposition to Israel on a par with white supremacy as a source of antisemitism", had sparked controversy. In January 2024, two-thirds of ADL's tally of more than 3,283 antisemitic incidents in the United States since October 7, 2023, were tied to the Israel-Hamas war ; The Forward said

3861-555: Is fully legitimate" and that "anti-Zionism equates [to] antisemitism, pure and simple". The European Union's coordinator for combatting antisemitism, Katharina von Schnurbein , said that by including Blume on its list, the center "discredit[s] the invaluable legacy of Simon Wiesenthal". Blume's inclusion was also criticised by representatives of Baden-Württemberg's Jewish community and the Central Council of Jews in Germany . In January 2023

4004-473: Is one of many partner organizations of the Austrian Service Abroad ( Auslandsdienst ) and the corresponding Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (Gedenkdienst). From the very start, the center grew rapidly. In 1985 the museum claimed to have 25,000 visitors annually and the center 273,000 contributing members, including 47,000 Californians. Between 1984 and 1990 the center published seven volumes of

4147-537: Is the recipient of an honorary degree and, in 1993 was made a Chevalier in the Ordre National du Mérite by French President François Mitterrand . Newsweek describes Hier as the following, "Hier is one phone call away from almost every world leader, journalist and Hollywood studio head. He is the dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the Museum of Tolerance and Moriah Films." In 2007 and 2008 Marvin Hier

4290-641: The Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual , that focused on the scholarly study of the Holocaust. In 1990, it had become one of the largest Jewish organizations in America with 380,000 members. The same year, Sheldon Teitelbaum and Tom Waldman profiled Hier in the Los Angeles Times , describing him as the "unorthodox rabbi", and characterized his success as follows: Yet he has apparently become something of

4433-730: The American Jewish Congress , and the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela defended Chávez, stating that he was speaking not of Jews, but of South America's white oligarchy . The center's representative in Latin America replied that Chávez's mention of Christ-killers was "ambiguous at best" and that the "decision to criticize Chávez had been taken after careful consideration". The center has on two occasions criticized bands for wearing attire resembling Nazi uniforms or using Nazi symbolism. In 2011, Abraham Cooper, condemned

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4576-528: The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith , is a New York–based international non-governmental organization that was founded to combat antisemitism , bigotry and discrimination . ADL is also known for its pro-Israel advocacy. Its current CEO is Jonathan Greenblatt . ADL headquarters are located in Murray Hill , in the New York City borough of Manhattan . The ADL has 25 regional offices in

4719-684: The Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington praised Hier for not allowing the "rewriting of history to the exclusion of Armenian genocide." But to the Armenian community's dismay, the exhibits commemorating the Armenian genocide were removed in 1997. The museum finally opened in 1993, in an 8-story building on Pico Boulevard opposite to Hier's yeshiva. It was given the English name the Museum of Tolerance and

4862-801: The Hunt Museum in Limerick to be retracted, until the conclusion of a demanded inquiry into the provenance of a significant number of items in the collection. In the letter he alleged that the founders of the museum, John and Gertrude Hunt, had close ties to the head of the Nazi Party (NSDP-AO) in Ireland, among others, and that the British had suspected the couple of espionage during the Second world war. The center also claimed, 'The "Hunt Museum Essential Guide" describes only 150 of

5005-562: The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs . In the essay, he claimed that the WSF was an amalgamation of "anti-Globalism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism, and antisemitism." The center was a harsh critic of president Barack Obama's Middle Eastern policy. In May 2011, Obama proposed that "the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps" which implied that Israel should withdraw from most of

5148-493: The Managing editor of the biggest Jewish Newspaper in Germany, jüdische Allgemeine , criticised the Wiesenthal Center for integrating Christoph Heusgen , Jakob Augstein and Michael Blume in its lists and for naming them next to terrorists and anti-Semites. He wrote with regard to the Wiesenthal Center and its lists: The fight against anti-Semitism is too serious to be pursued in the way the Wiesenthal Center unfortunately did with

5291-883: The Nexus Task Force , whose work was welcomed by the U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism , take a different view. Critics of the ADL said that such advocacy for Israel had undermined the group's counter-extremism work and argued that it had foregone parts of its historical mission against antisemitism, according to The Guardian . In 2024, an article in The Nation said, "The ADL's priority today remains—as it has for decades—going after Americans who are simply opposed to Israel's endless occupation and oppression of Palestinians", and criticized what it described as US media outlets using ADL reports on antisemitism uncritically. Middle East historian Asaf Romirowsky said that because ADL's clear stance on antisemitism does not conform to

5434-763: The Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8. In 2015, the ADL opposed the State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts , state laws that used the United States Supreme Court decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. recognizing a for-profit corporation's claim of religious belief. The ADL opposed these laws out of concern they largely targeted LGBT people or denied access to contraceptives to employees of religiously owned businesses. The ADL became independent from B'nai B'rith in 2009, dropping

5577-480: The white genocide conspiracy theory on his show. This call appeared shortly after research indicating that many who participated in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol had been influenced by this conspiracy theory. The ADL again called for Carlson to be fired in September 2021 following Carlson expressing support for the great replacement theory. Carlson responded, saying "Fuck them" regarding

5720-614: The "orthodoxy of the day", it has led to the discredition of the group whose purpose is to combat antisemitism. Jay Michaelson argues that "conflating real antisemitism with political disagreement" cheapens the term 'antisemitism' to the point of "rendering it almost meaningless." In 1974, ADL attorney Arnold Forster and national director Benjamin Epstein published the book The New Anti-Semitism . They expressed concern about what they described as new manifestations of antisemitism coming from radical left, radical right, and pro-Arab figures in

5863-470: The "speech marked a rare moment of the organization unequivocally" making that assertion. The remarks upset activists and Jewish groups critical of Israel, and also set off controversy within the ADL. Internal ADL messages seen by The Guardian included a senior manager at ADL's Center on Extremism writing in protest that: "There is no comparison between white supremacists and insurrectionists and those who espouse anti-Israel rhetoric, and to suggest otherwise

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6006-590: The 1970s, the ADL has partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) field offices, sharing information learned from the monitoring of extremist groups. In 1977 the ADL opened a headquarters in Jerusalem . It opposed an anti-Mormon film called The God Makers in 1982, viewing it a challenge to religious freedom. The ADL released a 1991 report observing an increase in the use of public access television stations by extremist groups. The report came in

6149-449: The ADL acknowledged "that it significantly broadened its definition of antisemitic incidents following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack to include rallies that feature 'anti-Zionist chants and slogans,' events that appear to account for around 1,317 of the total count". The ADL classified anti-war protest events led by Jewish groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow as "anti-Israel", adding

6292-452: The ADL conspired to obtain the confidential police material, a felony in California, and that the ADL had violated state tax laws by paying Bullock through a lawyer. The court documents said ADL had a network of sympathetic police officers sharing data, and that investigators had questioned police about free sponsored trips to Israel they received from the ADL. The documents also mentioned that

6435-479: The ADL from X, which was Twitter's new name under Musk. Musk also accused the ADL of defamation and threatened to sue it, writing that advertising revenue was "still down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that's what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!" The ADL said as matter of policy it did not comment on legal threats, but that it had recently met with X leadership including CEO Linda Yaccarino , who had thanked

6578-485: The ADL in November 1993 in exchange for the ADL paying $ 75,000 for use fighting hate crimes. During the investigation, a private investigator hired by the ADL, Roy H. Bullock, told police he had tracked skinheads , white supremacists, Arab Americans , and critics of Israel. He confessed to trying to find "any sexual impropriety" on the late anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu . In court documents, state officials said that

6721-456: The ADL said its staff complied with Misplaced Pages policies by disclosing their affiliations, but some Misplaced Pages editors objected that the project cited ADL sources disproportionately and did not reflect the volunteer spirit of the website, especially in heavily editing its own Misplaced Pages article. An internal email obtained by The Guardian in 2024 showed that in May 2020, the ADL had surveilled and produced

6864-597: The ADL's CEO on the platform. Greenblatt later praised Musk after he announced policy banning phrases such as " decolonization " and " from the river to the sea " on Twitter. The head of the ADL's Center for Technology and Society (CTS), Yael Eisenstat, reportedly quit in protest of the praise of Musk. In September 2023, the ADL launched a media and entertainment institute aimed at combating antisemitism and improving depictions of Jewish people in entertainment. The institute works with industry leaders and non-profit organizations such as Common Sense Media . In February 2024,

7007-489: The ADL's spying operations were reported to the Israeli government and its intelligence agencies. The ADL's Foxman contended that the ADL had a right to use the police information to combat antisemitism, and he argued in an interview that allegations that the ADL acted as an agent for Israel were "antisemitic". News of the investigation led Arab Americans listed in the ADL's files to sue the ADL, contending invasion of privacy and

7150-552: The ADL, describing the ADL's call as politically motivated and defending his statements. In 2023, Fox dropped Carlson, a move welcomed by ADL leadership. In 2022, the ADL revised its 2020 definition of racism from "the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges White people" to occurrence "when individuals or institutions show more favorable evaluation or treatment of an individual or group based on race or ethnicity." Also in 2022, ADL published an analysis of

7293-414: The American Jewish Committee and American Jewish Congress. This characteristic gave these three organizations greater influence on the national Jewish community at a time when most local congregations and organizations were splintered, with little outreach to the broader community. By the 1970s, decentralization yielded greater influence. By this point the ADL had succeeded in developing local branches, though

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7436-585: The Armenian genocide and the Nazi Holocaust and other genocides." In interviews Hier repeatedly assured people that the Armenian genocide would be featured. This drew the ire of some parts of Los Angeles Jewish community because of the precarious situation for Jews in Turkey, which doesn't recognize the Armenian genocide. Hier took the position that the Armenian genocide did happen and that it should be included, regardless of any diplomatic issues. Michael Berenbaum of

7579-500: The Hebrew name Beit HaShoah, the House of the Holocaust. The total construction costs amounted to some $ 50 million, with the majority of the funding coming from donations and $ 10 million from government funding. Today the museum hosts 350,000 visitors annually, among them 110,000 schoolchildren. Branches of the Museum have been built in New York and Jerusalem. The Center and its Museum of Tolerance

7722-550: The Hollywood célébrité, local politicians, and businessmen and raised large sums of money which he used to expand his operations. In 1985, the center was incorporated separately from the yeshiva in order to bid for state funding for the construction of a bigger Holocaust museum. This bid was vociferously opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union , the Anti-Defamation League and secular Jewish organizations due to

7865-401: The Japanese band Kishidan for wearing uniforms resembling those of the SS, the armed wing of the Nazi party. The band wore military-inspired uniforms, adorned with the German medal Iron Cross and Nazi insignia such as the death skull and SS eagle on MTV Japan 's primetime program "Mega Vector". Cooper said in a written protest to the band's management company Sony Music Artists , MTV Japan and

8008-425: The Japanese entertainment group Avex (Kishidan's label at the time being and also the current one) that "there is no excuse for such an outrage" and that "many young Japanese are "woefully uneducated" about the crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany and Japan during the second world war , but global entities like MTV and Sony Music should know better". As a result, Sony Music Artists and Avex issued

8151-472: The LAJCC maintained its undercover surveillance of the German-American Bund, the Silver Shirts and dozens of other pro-Nazi, nativist groups that operated in Los Angeles. Partnering with the American Legion in Los Angeles, the LAJCC channeled eyewitness accounts of sedition on to federal authorities. Working with the ADL, Leon Lewis and the LAJCC played a strategic role in counseling the McCormack-Dickstein Committee investigation of Nazi propaganda activities in

8294-439: The Martyrs' Memorial had been in the works for 10 years and was reaching its culmination. His response was: 'We will do it bigger, better, faster--and without the survivors.' There was no regard on his part for communal niceties or respect for the survivor community. It was a venture that he viewed as competitive. Whoever had the biggest center would be king. Wiesenthal himself, however, was fully supportive of Hier's museum. Despite

8437-408: The Nazis - to exterminate Iranian prisoners of war , according to the report. Kenneth R. Timmerman , who prepared the report, wrote: "The picture beginning to emerge is of a vast Iraqi pillage of the treasures of West German technology, aided and abetted by the West German authorities in their lust to increase the nation's export earnings." Despite the allegations in the report, fully endorsed by Hier,

8580-405: The Peace to Prosperity conference in Bahrain . During the June 25–26 economic conference in Manama , Hier praised the government of Bahrain saying, "If every Arab country were to be like Bahrain, the Messiah would arrive!" Hier resides in Los Angeles, California . He has two sons and eight grandchildren. Anti-Defamation League The Anti-Defamation League ( ADL ), formerly known as

8723-429: The Quigleys' private telephone conversations via a police scanner. These recordings were legal at the time, but federal wiretap law was amended shortly after to make it illegal to record conversations from a cordless telephone, to transcribe the material, and to use the transcriptions for any purpose. ADL Regional Director Saul Rosenthal described the recorded remarks as part of a "vicious antisemitic campaign". This led to

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8866-413: The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School. In the 1960s, Hier served as assistant rabbi and, in 1964, became Rabbi of Congregation Schara Tzedeck in Vancouver , British Columbia. In 1977, following a visit to Holocaust sites in Europe, Hier came to Los Angeles to create the Simon Wiesenthal Center . Under his leadership, the center has become one of the foremost Jewish human rights agencies in the world, with

9009-449: The SWC released a report on the BDS movement which calls for boycotting Israel until it stops the occupation and discrimination against Palestinian citizens, and allows the Palestinian refugees to return . The report claimed that BDS is a "thinly-disguised effort to coordinate and complement the violent strategy of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim 'rejectionists' who have refused to make peace with Israel for over six decades, and to pursue

9152-400: The Simon Wiesenthal Center will live on as my legacy." The center is headed by Jim Berk as CEO since January 2024, Rabbi Abraham Cooper the associate dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda and Rabbi Meyer May , the executive director. Marvin Hier's wife, Marlene Hier, is the Director of Membership development. Shimon Samuels is the Director for International Relations. In 2016,

9295-488: The Simon Wiesenthal Center. In 1977, he moved to Los Angeles and bought a building on Pico Boulevard using a $ 500,000 donation from Samuel Belzberg which was matched with another half a million from Toronto-based real estate maven Joseph Tannenbaum. In the building he founded a yeshiva , a religious Jewish school, today known as Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles , and a small Holocaust museum, with Belzberg as founding chairman. Famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal

9438-440: The US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory: "Speaking as a Jew, so many presidents talked about making Jerusalem the capital of Israel. They made nice speeches, but in the end they couldn't deliver. Trump delivered." Hier and his wife have participated in fundraising events for Trump's 2020 reelection campaign. The center has also at times criticized Trump. In January 2018 it asked

9581-410: The United States including a Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C., as well as an office in Israel and staff in Europe. In its 2019 annual information Form 990, ADL reported total revenues of $ 92 million, the vast majority from contributions and grants. Its total operating revenue is reported at $ 80.9 million. It was founded in late September 1913 by the Independent Order of B'nai B'rith ,

9724-437: The United States (1934) and the Dies Committee investigation of "un-American activities" (1938–1940). In their final reports to Congress, both committees found that the sudden rise in political antisemitism in the United States during the decade was due, in part, to the German government's support of these domestic groups. Paralleling its infiltration efforts, the ADL continued its attempts to reduce antisemitic caricatures in

9867-506: The United States and foreign governments and with diplomats and heads of state. It is accredited as a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the United Nations, UNESCO , and the Council of Europe . The center is named in honor of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal . Wiesenthal had nothing to do with its operation or activities other than giving its name, but he remained supportive of it. "I have received many honors in my lifetime," Wiesenthal once said, "when I die, these honors will die with me. But

10010-507: The United States over the past decade had been committed by white supremacists. In a 2023 report, white supremacists were also deemed responsible for 45% of right-wing extremism in the US from 2017 to 2022. In 2020, ADL joined with the NAACP , Color of Change , LULAC , Free Press , the National Hispanic Media Coalition and other organizations in the Stop Hate For Profit campaign. The campaign targeted online hate on Facebook, with over 1000 businesses pausing their ad buys on Facebook for

10153-412: The United States. It opposed McCarthyism during the Cold War , and campaigned for major civil rights legislation in the 1960s. It also worked with the NAACP to discredit the far right in a spy operation. In the 1980s, it was involved in propaganda against Nelson Mandela of South Africa before embracing him the following decade. ADL is also known for its pro-Israel advocacy. It has advanced

10296-477: The Wiesenthal Center [also] aggravates me. They're too commercial. You cannot package the Holocaust. It's an insult to the memory of our parents and brothers and sisters. Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, director of the Hillel Jewish Student Union at UCLA , in an interview with the same paper in 1990 claimed that he confronted Hier about the unwelcome competition: I asked Hier why he was doing this when

10439-406: The Wiesenthal Center and he is also the author of its annual (since 2001) "Status Report" on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which includes a "most wanted" list of Nazi war criminals . In November 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center gave the name of four suspected former Nazi criminals to German authorities. The names were the first results of Operation Last Chance ,

10582-422: The amount of what would be expected. He and his family members received nearly $ 1.3 million in 2012 from the center. In 2017, The Forward again rated Hier as the most overpaid Jewish charity leader with a total salary of $ 818,148. Family members of his earned over $ 600,000 from the organization. According to Charity Navigator the center's total revenue and expenses was $ 25,359,129 and $ 26,181,569 in 2018. 52.8% of

10725-560: The anti-semitic Khazar conspiracy theory about Jewish origins. In a 2019 survey of 1,019 African Americans, 4% of respondents self-identified as Black Hebrew Israelites . Moriah Films , also known as the Jack and Pearl Resnick Film Division of the SWC, was created to produce theatrical documentaries to educate both national and international audiences, with a focus on contemporary human rights and ethical issues and Jewish experience. Two films produced by

10868-449: The approval of the funding was that Hier in 1985 had promised to commemorate the Armenian genocide in the museum. California's governor at the time George Deukmejian was of Armenian descent and the legislation which approved the funding explicitly referred to the Armenian genocide: "which have so adversely affected the lives and well-being of so many human beings, through such mass murder as

11011-451: The architect of the administration's immigration policy, on the basis of his association with white supremacists. The ADL says it has participated in YouTube 's Trusted Flagger program and has encouraged YouTube to remove videos that they flag as hate speech, citing the need to "fight against terrorist use of online resources and cyberhate." The ADL's Center on Technology and Society launched

11154-671: The center and spoke with Abraham Cooper and Hier who both confirmed the story as "absolutely true." On May 18, 2006, one day before Kelly's story was to be published, the center wrote a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urging the international community to pressure Iran to drop the measure. The letter characterized Taheri as "a well known and well respected analyst on Iranian affairs" and claimed that "a consensus has developed regarding color badges to be worn by non-Moslems: yellow for Jews, red for Christians, blue for Zoroastrians and other colors for other religions." At that point, neither Cooper nor Hier had actually tried to verify

11297-530: The center considered placing on the list in 2016 for "mainstreaming the BDS movement that never contributes to the daily life of Palestinians." The inclusion of German journalist Jakob Augstein on their 2012 list sparked a controversy in German media. The center's 2021 edition of its "Global Anti-Semitism Top Ten" list included in seventh place the entire country of Germany, particularly Michael Blume  [ de ] ,

11440-468: The center had 136 employees. The headquarters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is in Los Angeles . However, there are also international offices located in New York City , Miami , Toronto , Jerusalem , Paris , Chicago , and Buenos Aires . In its 2013 survey of Jewish charity compensation, the Jewish-American magazine The Forward singled out Hier as "by far the most overpaid CEO" earning double

11583-659: The center in Los Angeles have grown to a collection of about 50,000 volumes and non-print materials. Moreover, the archives incorporates photographs, diaries , letters , artifacts , artwork and rare books, which are available to researchers, students and the general public . In 2005, the New York branch of the Museum of Tolerance opened to the public under the name New York Tolerance Center , providing tolerance training to police officers, prosecutors, schoolteachers and teenagers. In its first four years, over 10,000 people, mostly law enforcement officers, underwent tolerance training at

11726-404: The center in its press release omitted the reference to Bolívar and quoted Chávez as follows: "the world has wealth for all, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, have taken over all the wealth of the world." It asserted that he was referring to Jews, and denounced the remarks as antisemitic by way of his allusions to wealth. The American Jewish Committee ,

11869-500: The central office remained significant even in terms of local branch activities. The ADL was founded in late September 1913 by B'nai B'rith , with Sigmund Livingston as its first leader. Its goals were to counter antisemitism, prejudice and discrimination. Initially the league largely represented Midwestern and Southern Jews concerned with antagonistic portrayals of Jews in popular culture along with social and economic discrimination. In 1913, Atlanta B'nai B'rith President Leo Frank

12012-404: The centre there. The Jewish Week noted that the center itself was accused of intolerance when it built a museum in Jerusalem on land that was once a Muslim cemetery , after gaining approval from Israeli courts. The Center criticized Hugo Chávez for various statements, including a statement in his Christmas speech in 2005: The world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority,

12155-686: The change in leadership, the ADL shifted from Livingston's reactive responses to antisemitic action to a much more aggressive policy. During the 1930s, ADL, along with the AJC, coordinated American Jewish groups across the country in monitoring the activities of the German-American Bund and its pro-Nazi, nativist allies in the United States. In many instances, these community-based defense organizations paid informants to infiltrate these groups and report on what they discovered. The longest-lived and most effective of these American Jewish resistance organizations

12298-469: The city's Muslim population. The museum is being built on a thousand-year-old Muslim graveyard called the Mamilla Cemetery , much of which has already been paved over. The complaints were rejected by Israel's Supreme Court, leading to a demonstration by hundreds of people in November 2008. On November 19, 2008, a group of US Jewish and Muslim leaders sent a letter to the Wiesenthal Center urging it to halt

12441-431: The city's other Jewish organizations if they felt it would benefit, or avenge, him. Hier knows this. In all these ways, he has used his muscle to become one of the most imposing figures in world Jewry. Between 1984 and 1990 the center published seven volumes of the Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual , that focused on the scholarly study of the Holocaust, broadly defined. This series is ISSN   0741-8450 . The archives of

12584-499: The commissioner against antisemitism of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, alleging that he had liked a 2019 Facebook post equating Zionism with Nazism. Blume told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview that he has no recollection of liking any such post, and that it was possible that the post had been edited after he had liked it; he also described himself as a "friend and ally" of Israel who believes that "Zionism

12727-423: The concept of new antisemitism , including a definition that says anti-Zionism and some criticisms of Israel are antisemitic. It has received criticism, including from members of its staff, that such advocacy has diverted ADL from its historical fight against antisemitism. In its early decades, the ADL benefited from being among the few highly centralized Jewish community relations organizations alongside

12870-463: The construction of the museum on the site. As of February 2010, the Museum of Tolerance's plan for construction has been fully approved by Israeli courts and is proceeding at the compound of Mamilla Cemetery. The courts ruled that the compound had been neglected as a spiritual site by the Muslim community, in effect not functioning as a cemetery for decades (while simultaneously used for other purposes), and

13013-509: The courts. The legal challenges have primarily been brought by the ACLU and CAIR on First Amendment constitutional grounds. As a general matter the organization also has not publicly opposed such state laws, preferring to work behind the scenes to try to make such laws less infirm under the Constitution or to propose non-binding resolutions opposing BDS. A possible division of internal views in ADL

13156-434: The creation of the ADL. According to historians, ADL's early strategy would be to pressure newspapers, theaters, and other businesses seen as defaming or discriminating against Jews; proposed methods included boycotts and pressuring advertisers, and it also considered demanding prior reviews of theater productions for antisemitism. After Georgia's outgoing governor commuted Frank's death sentence to life imprisonment in 1915,

13299-504: The descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolivar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession of all the wealth of the world. A minority has taken ownership of all of the gold of the planet, of the silver, of the minerals, the waters, the good lands, oil, of

13442-491: The division, Genocide and The Long Way Home have received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature . Moriah Films has worked with numerous actors to narrate their productions. Including but not limited to Elizabeth Taylor , Michael Douglas , Nicole Kidman , Morgan Freeman , Patrick Stewart , and Sandra Bullock . Since 2010, the center has published annual lists of individuals who they consider to have uttered

13585-522: The evangelical Christian movement. Through the 60s and early 70s, the ADL had conflicted with the American Jewish Congress over their collaborations with evangelicals. Perlmutter and Eckstein changed this orientation, increasing collaborations and developing long-lasting lines of communication between the ADL and evangelical groups. This collaboration continued under the Foxman administration. Since

13728-619: The facility. In April 2016, the New York City Council stopped funding the Tolerance Center following the arrest of a former board member who has been accused of raising $ 20 million from a city correctional officers' union through kickbacks. The Center stated that the member had resigned from its board on June 15, and that it was unaware of any unethical or illegal activities regarding its donors. A branch museum in Jerusalem , expected to be completed in 2021, sparked protests from

13871-521: The fact that for decades now especially the young generation in the free part of Germany has been informed without any taboos of the causes and consequences of the National Socialist tyranny: in schools, universities, church or other educational institutions and the media." He added that East Germans are "immune to any new totalitarian temptations" and he also emphasized the fact that hate crimes are punishable with fines or prison sentences. However,

14014-571: The family being ridiculed and excluded in their community and to career damage. These recordings were used as basis for a federal civil lawsuit against the Aronson family and the ADL for defamation . The Quigleys and Aronsons settled out-of-court, and a jury awarded the Quigleys $ 10 million in damages from the ADL. This was the first-ever verdict against the ADL. Only once before had the League been subject to

14157-420: The far-right Otzma Yehudit and Religious Zionist Party , and their leaders, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich . The ADL said that including these parties and lawmakers "would run counter to Israel's founding principles, and impact its standing, even among its strongest supporters." In a 2022 speech to ADL leaders, Greenblatt said that " anti-Zionism is antisemitism". The Times of Israel noted that

14300-411: The forwarding of confidential information to Israel and South Africa. In 1996, ADL settled the federal civil lawsuit filed by groups representing African Americans and Arab Americans . The ADL did not admit any wrongdoing but agreed to a restraining injunction barring it from obtaining information from state employees who cannot legally disclose such information. The ADL agreed to contribute $ 25,000 to

14443-570: The governing board of directors is Esta Gordon Epstein; elected in late 2018 for a three-year term, she is the second woman to hold the organization's top volunteer leadership post. ADL repeatedly accused Donald Trump , when he was a presidential candidate in 2016, of making use of antisemitic tropes or otherwise exploiting divisive and bigoted rhetoric during the 2016 presidential election campaign . The ADL accused President Trump of politicizing charges of antisemitism for partisan purposes, and for continued use of antisemitic tropes. The ADL said it

14586-683: The honorary delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008. In 2009, he criticized Vatican cardinal Renato Martino over his comment that the Gaza Strip was a "big concentration camp". He later criticized the lifting of the excommunication of bishop Richard Williamson , a member of the Society of Saint Pius X . In 2009 Newsweek named him # 2 on its list of "50 Influential Rabbis." A $ 100 million Museum of Tolerance and Human Dignity ,

14729-633: The institute appointed documentary producer and journalist Deborah Camiel as its leader. The ADL is described as a pro-Israel group. The Middle East historian Asaf Romirowsky described the organization as "left of center" politically. The ADL has taken a case-by-case approach to state anti-BDS laws enacted in response to the BDS movement . Several of these laws, which seek to prohibit state agencies and instrumentalities from investing in companies that boycott Israel and from entering into contracts with entities that boycott Israel, have been successfully challenged in

14872-415: The last communist premier of East Germany, Hans Modrow , wrote a letter to Hier and in it, he wrote that Hier's fears were "definitely justified in the light of the formation of a multi-party landscape." Hier welcomed the frankness of Modrow's reply, adding that "[t]he legacy of the Holocaust in a united Germany should be institutionalized. It should be on the conscience of every German from cradle to grave in

15015-557: The list. [...] Truth instead of fake news : For Simon Wiesenthal, that was a matter of course. Obviously, this is only a very limited part of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's self-image. The center hosts dinners during which it awards people the prizes Humanitarian Award and the less prestigious Medal of Valor. It is one of the center's main fundraising events. The winners of the Humanitarian Award for each year were: Controversies include aiding Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder in

15158-506: The meat industry to victims of the Holocaust . In 2005, PETA apologized for causing distress to the Jewish community through the campaign, though in 2008, the Chief Rabbinate announced that it was planning to gradually phase out the use of the "shackle and hoist" method of kosher slaughter in Israel and South America, in part in response to pressure from PETA. As of 2007, the ADL said it

15301-458: The media. Much like the NAACP , it chose a non-confrontational approach, attempting to build long-lasting relationships and avoid backlash. The ADL requested its members avoid public confrontation, instead directing them to send letters to the media and advertising companies that included antisemitic or racist references in screening copies of their books and movies. This strategy kept the campaigns out of

15444-446: The memory of the Holocaust. Fred Diament, president of the Holocaust survivor group 1939 Club who helped establish the competing Martyrs' Memorial, blasted the organization in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1985: As a survivor, what aggravates me is that they collect lots of money in the name of the Holocaust. And they're using lots of it for publicizing their center and also for certain sensationalist things... The style of

15587-465: The most antisemitic or anti-Israel "slurs" for the year. The rankings have often been criticized for labeling criticism of Israel anti-Semitism. Examples include Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström 's call for an investigation into "extra-judicial killings" by Israeli police during the Knife intifada in 2015 which the center ranked as the eight worst slur that year, and Berlin's mayor Michael Müller who

15730-519: The museum of wrongdoing. The claim was taken so seriously that the examination was supervised by the prestigious Royal Irish Academy , whose 2006 report is available online. McAleese, who had been written to by the center, then criticized Samuels for "a tissue of lies", adding that the center had diminished the name of Simon Wiesenthal. The center said that it had prepared its own 150-page report in May 2008 that would be published after vetting by its lawyers, but had not done so as of November 2008. The report

15873-413: The opposition and by using the connections with the Los Angeles elite Hier had formented, he secured a grant for $ 5 million from the state. According to Karl Katz , designer of the museum, over 10,000 Californians sent messages to the state Senate in support of the grant. The Center later netted an additional $ 5 million through a bill introduced by Democratic Representative Henry Waxman . One reason for

16016-537: The over 2000 objects in the Museum's collection and, notably, without providing information on their provenance – data that all museums are now required to provide in accordance with international procedure.' This essentially accused the Hunt Museum in Limerick of keeping art and artifacts looted during the Second World War, which was described as "unprofessional in the extreme" by the expert Lynn Nicholas that cleared

16159-520: The part of the CBSP, and that the allegations were "seriously defamatory". The Wiesenthal Center appealed the court ruling, and the appeal was granted in July 2009. In the spring of 2006, Douglas Kelly, the editor of the Canadian National Post found a column by Iranian in exile, Amir Taheri , alleging that the Iranian parliament might force minorities to wear identifiable clothing. Kelly phoned

16302-562: The president to withdraw his statements about wanting more immigration from places from Norway, rather than from "shithole countries" like Haiti and those in Africa. Meir and the Kushner family who are Trump's in-laws (related via Jared Kushner ) have known each other for decades. The Kushner family has made several large donations to the center via the Charles and Seryl Kushner Family Foundation. In 2013,

16445-449: The protests antisemitic, but Greenblatt labelled the protesting groups as hate groups. Former staff told The Daily Beast in 2023 of dissent within the ADL over the increasing equation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and over Greenblatt's calls for bans and investigations of pro-Palestinian organizations that he alleged had supported terrorist groups. In early 2024, two ADL staff quit the group in response to pro-Israel advocacy during

16588-543: The protests to a database documenting rising antisemitism in the US. In response, an ADL staffer quit, who told the Guardian that "These were Jewish people who we [as the ADL] were defaming, so that felt extremely, extremely confusing, and frustrating to me. And it makes it harder to talk about that when any criticism of Israel, or anyone who criticizes Israel, just becomes a terrorist." The ADL told The Intercept that it did not consider

16731-571: The public eye and instead emphasized the development of a relationship with companies. The ADL opposed red-baiting and McCarthyism in the 1950s. The ADL campaigned for civil rights legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 . The ADL and the NAACP worked together to discredit the far right in the United States, according to Mathew Delleck, the ADL

16874-506: The reference to the other organization in its name. The ADL was one of the groups that opposed the Shelby County v. Holder decision by the Supreme Court in 2013 to strike down a portion of the Voting Rights Act . The court's decision ended the portion of the law that required states with a history of discrimination to undergo federal scrutiny for election rules. In November 2014, the organization announced that Jonathan Greenblatt ,

17017-582: The relationship between him and Kohl remained cordial. The center is very critical of the annual World Economic Forum -alternative the World Social Forum . In 2002, the center's Shimon Samuels published in essay titled With a Clenched First and an Outstretched Arm: Antisemitism, Globalization, and the NGO Challenge in the International Area in the journal Jewish Political Studies Review run by

17160-476: The revenue came from contributions, gifts and grants, 31.4% from fundraising events and 15.8% from government grants. Hier was born and raised in New York City and became an ordained rabbi at the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School . At the age of 22 he moved to Vancouver , Canada and became the rabbi of the city's orthodox synagogue. He became friends with the mostly non-Orthodox Belzberg family who would help him fund

17303-504: The spying. In early January 2021, the ADL called for the removal of Donald Trump as president in response to the storming of the United States Capitol and described the relationship of the storming of the Capitol to the far-right and antisemitic groups. In April 2021, Jonathan Greenblatt released a letter calling on the right-wing American network Fox News to drop commentator Tucker Carlson from its lineup, saying that Carlson had espoused

17446-436: The story. The day after, Taylor Marsh called Aaron Breitbart, a researcher at the center to verify the story. He too said that the story was "very true" and "very scary." He added that Hier had been on the phone for four hours to confirm the story, something Marsh found odd and she wondered how the confirmation could have taken four hours. The same day the story was published, several Iranian experts doubted its veracity and it

17589-530: The suffering of the tens of thousands of refugees who survived the Holocaust. In 1990, he wrote and co-produced the award-winning Echoes That Remain , a documentary on pre- World War II European Jewish life, and in 1994, Hier produced and co-wrote, Liberation , the first production of Moriah Films . Under Hier's direction, the Wiesenthal Center has served as consultant to Steven Spielberg 's epic Schindler's List , and ABC Television 's miniseries adaptation of Herman Wouk 's novel, War and Remembrance . He

17732-577: The territory it occupied in the Six-day war in 1967. The proposal drew ire from the center which claimed that such a withdrawal "would be Auschwitz borders for Israel," alluding to the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp . In December 2016 it ranked the Obama administrations refusal to veto a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction as the most anti-semitic/anti-Israel incident that year. The center wrote "The most stunning 2016 U.N. attack on Israel

17875-557: The unclear separation between the yeshiva and the center. At the time, the same persons sat on the board of both the center and the yeshiva. Another reason for the opposition was that Los Angeles already had a Holocaust museum; the Martyrs' Memorial Museum (later renamed to the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust ) and Hier's bid was seen as undue competition by parts of Los Angeles Jewish community which also criticized him for exploiting

18018-598: The wake of the Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America documentary, promoted by NBA star Kyrie Irving . The documentary contained antisemitic tropes , Holocaust denial , and claims of an international Jewish conspiracy . The center reported that individuals motivated by Black Hebrew Israelitism committed five religiously motived murders between 2019 and 2022. The report stated that BHIs believe that Jewish people are "imposters", who have "stolen" Black American's true racial and religious identity. Black Hebrew Israelites promulgate

18161-477: The wake of the trial of Tom Metzger , a white supremacist leader found guilty of inciting a murder via his public access TV station. San Francisco police searched two offices of the ADL in April 1993, suspecting it of having monitored thousands of activists; in the search, they confiscated police records including fingerprints and copies of confidential reports, according to court documents. The San Francisco district attorney considered indictments, but settled with

18304-528: The war. ADL supported a December 5, 2023, US Congress resolution that described anti-Zionism as antisemitism. The ADL and "many other Jewish establishment organizations" have campaigned for governments to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which describes anti-Zionism and some forms of criticism of Israel as antisemitic, according to The Guardian . Some Jewish organizations, such as

18447-517: The way for the Abraham Accords . He gave an invocation at the 2017 inauguration of Donald Trump . He has participated in fundraising events for Trump's 2020 reelection. He was "the first Orthodox rabbi ever to give a benediction at an American president's inauguration". He cited Psalm 137 : "By the rivers of Babylon ... We wept as we remembered Zion. If I forget thee, Oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. " In 2019 Marvin attended

18590-415: The wealth, and have concentrated the wealth in a few hands. Less than 10 percent of the population of the world owns more than half of the wealth of the world, more than the population of the planet is poor, and each day there are more poor people in the whole world. The reference was to Simon Bolívar , a South American folk hero who led several countries to independence from Spain in the 19th century. But

18733-557: Was a different kind of president who targeted minorities and had at times used tropes considered by many to be antisemitic. Criticism came from Peter Beinart writing in The Forward that "they will reserve a special mention for the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Rabbi Marvin Hier. Last week, Trump rewarded him by asking him to offer an inaugural prayer." In an interview in The Times of Israel in 2019 Hier praised Trump for his decision to relocate

18876-567: Was archiving MySpace pages associated with white supremacists as part of its effort to track extremism. The ADL opposed 2008 California Proposition 8 , a ballot successful initiative that banned same-sex marriage. It did so alongside Jewish organizations, including the National Council of Jewish Women and the Progressive Jewish Alliance. The ADL filed amicus briefs urging the Supreme Court of California , Ninth Circuit , and

19019-464: Was convicted of the murder of a 13-year-old employee at a factory where he was superintendent; historians today generally consider Frank to have been innocent. Jewish leadership viewed Frank as having been wrongly prosecuted and convicted because of local antisemitism and agitation by some of the local press. The role that prejudice played in Frank's conviction was mentioned by Adolf Kraus when he announced

19162-486: Was convinced to bless the museum with his name. Edward Norden, writing for Commentary , dismissed the museum as "a low-tech affair fashioned by and for Jews and holding nothing against the Gentiles back—an outsized portrait of Pius XII was given a prominent place among pictures of those who 'didn't care.' The message was that Jews have enemies, murderous enemies, and should look out." Hier, a skillful fundraiser, networked with

19305-459: Was disclosed when the liberal Jewish publication, The Forward , published ostensible leaked internal ADL staff memos dating from 2016 that opposed the anti-boycott laws. ADL did not comment directly on the leaked memos, but the statement it issued in response appeared to acknowledge both that there were sharply divided views within the organization and that the organization did not try to suppress internal robust discussion. In 2010, ADL published

19448-588: Was facilitated by President Obama when the U.S. abstained on a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel for settlement construction." In 2017, Hier faced harsh criticism from the Jewish-American community for accepting an invite by the Trump campaign to hold a prayer at the president elect's inauguration . Hier defended his decision by saying that he had offered his blessings to presidential candidates before. That didn't placate his critics who claimed that Trump

19591-484: Was facing a discredit campaign for its criticism of Trump. In mid-2018, ADL raised concerns over President Donald Trump's nomination of then-DC Circuit Court of Appeals judge Brett Kavanaugh as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court . Subsequently, in another move that enraged many on the right, ADL called for the resignation or firing of Trump administration official Stephen Miller ,

19734-503: Was finally made on December 12, 2008. The Simon Wiesenthal Center opposed the construction of Park51 , a Muslim community center in Manhattan in New York, because the planned location was only two blocks away from Ground Zero where the September 11 attacks had taken place. The executive director of the center's Museum of Tolerance in Manhattan, Meyer May said it was "insensitive" to locate

19877-517: Was named the most influential rabbi in America by Newsweek . Hier founded the Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles and was the dean of the school until the 2006–2007 school year. Hier helped to propagate the 2006 Iranian sumptuary law hoax , declaring the fictitious law to be "absolutely true" when contacted by Canadian journalist Douglas Kelly to verify the story. President George W. Bush appointed Hier to serve on

20020-426: Was perhaps the most effective group in discrediting extremist right wing elements in the United States. The ADL conducted a spy operation headed by Isadore Zack, against the far right In 1973, Nathan Perlmutter took the role of national director, serving until his death in 1987. Under the tenure of Perlmutter and his 1978–1983 co-director of interreligious affairs Yechiel Eckstein , the ADL shifted its approach to

20163-529: Was soon found out to have been a complete fabrication by Taheri. The newspaper that published the story retracted it and apologized for it, but the center never did apologize and refused to admit any mistake on their part. In January 2004, Shimon Samuels of the Paris branch of the center published an open letter to the president of Ireland, Mary McAleese , requesting the "Irish Museum of the Year Award" recently given to

20306-675: Was the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee (LAJCC), which was backed financially by the Jewish leaders of the motion picture industry. The day-to-day operations of the LAJCC were supervised by a Jewish attorney, Leon L. Lewis . Lewis was uniquely qualified to combat the rise of Nazism in Los Angeles, having served as the first national secretary of the Anti-Defamation League in Chicago from 1925 to 1931. From 1934 to 1941,

20449-426: Was thus mundra , i.e. abandoned, under Muslim laws. The center used to hunt Nazi war criminals, often in collaboration with Simon Wiesenthal. Its first claim to fame came in 1979 when it successfully petitioned West Germany to revoke a statute of limitations on Nazi war criminals. Efraim Zuroff , director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, is the coordinator of Nazi war crimes research worldwide for

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