On Thursday March 16, ADL’s Senior Investigative Researcher and Director of Special Projects Joanna Mendelson with the Center on Extremism spoke with a group of NextGen young professionals about hate and extremism. Mendelson discussed her work tracking white supremacist groups online and in the real world as part of the Center on Extremism, including that during the years 2007-2016 domestic extremists killed at least 372 people in the US; 74% of these deaths were by right wing extremists
Mendelson presented recent trends in extremists’ online activity following the election, particularly on Twitter, where many Jewish journalists were targeted. She also noted an uptick in white supremacist activity both by posting flyers and holding events on college campuses. Most recently, she discussed the six waves of bomb threats to Jewish institutions nationwide since the beginning of the year.
Hosted by Salvin Leadership Program alumna — now Glass Leadership Institute — Jennifer Hannon and her husband Jim, many in attendance were alumni of GLI, and for many it was their first ADL program. At the end of the session, attendees were given the option to sign up for opportunities to work with ADL’s Center on Extremism to help track this activity. To learn more about our NextGen programs, contact Bettina Ho, bho@adl.org