Latest / Antisemitism Watch / Antisemitism Watch - August 13, 2026, 05 AM Eastern

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Antisemitism Watch - August 13, 2026, 05 AM Eastern · Antisemitism Watch

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: You're listening to antisemitism watch. I'm Rachel Adler. Today we're
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  Speaker 1: tracking vandalism targeting a Jewish fraternity, disturbing patterns of antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: on college campuses, and the insidious ways hate manifests online
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  Speaker 1: and within extremist ideologies. We begin this hour with a
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  Speaker 1: report from San Diego, where members of the UC San
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  Speaker 1: Diego Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pie discovered antisemitic graffiti spray
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  Speaker 1: painted on their residence over the weekend. San Diego police
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  Speaker 1: are investigating the vandalism, which occurred between Friday and Saturday night,
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  Speaker 1: as a suspected hate crime. The graffiti defaced both interior
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  Speaker 1: and exterior walls. UCSD Chancellor Pradeep k Costla condemned the act,
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  Speaker 1: calling it abhorrent and unacceptable, and stated the university would
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  Speaker 1: support impacted students. San Diego Crime Stoppers, the San Diego
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  Speaker 1: GLBTQ Plus Historic Task Force, and the Hate Crime Fund
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  Speaker 1: are offering a reward for information. The fraternity chapter released
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  Speaker 1: a statement affirming their pride in their Jewish identity and
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  Speaker 1: urging the university to implement educational programs to combat antisemitism.
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  Speaker 1: Local Jewish organizations also offered support, stating that hate like
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  Speaker 1: this is meant to make Jewish life smaller and quieter,
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  Speaker 1: but in San Diego it does the opposite. Turning to
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  Speaker 1: campus issues, a state investigation has found reasonable cause to
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  Speaker 1: believe Arlington Public Schools, specifically at Yorktown High School in Virginia,
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  Speaker 1: violated anti discrimination laws due to repeated antisemitic incidents. A
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  Speaker 1: thirty nine page summary of evidence reviewed by The Free
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  Speaker 1: Press details allegations of antisemitic slurs, jokes, and Nazi salutes
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  Speaker 1: directed at Jewish students, with some students reportedly told Hitler
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  Speaker 1: should have finished the job or that they belonged in
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  Speaker 1: a gas chamber. The report also mentions incidents following October
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  Speaker 1: seventh where Jewish students were mocked and blamed for the war.
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  Speaker 1: Investigators concluded that APS was deliberately indifferent to a hostile environment.
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  Speaker 1: A spokesperson for APS stated the district takes allegations of
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  Speaker 1: discriminations seriously and is committed to safe learning environments, but
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  Speaker 1: offered no further comment on the investigation referenced. In Colorado,
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  Speaker 1: a federal civil rights complaint has been filed against the
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  Speaker 1: Boulder Valley School District by the Anti Defamation League on
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  Speaker 1: behalf of a Southern Hills middle school student. The complaint
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  Speaker 1: details two years of severe antisemitic harassment, slurs, threats, and
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  Speaker 1: physical abuse, including a game called Jew Touch, tag, Nazi
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  Speaker 1: and Holocaust related comments, and an incident where a charging
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  Speaker 1: cord was allegedly placed around the student's neck with an
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  Speaker 1: antisemitic slur. Superintendent Rob Anderson issued a public apology, acknowledging
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  Speaker 1: insufficient district responses and pledging to implement a coordinated response
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  Speaker 1: team and oversight council. During a public meeting, some speakers
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  Speaker 1: advocated for robust prevention policies and partnerships with the ADL,
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  Speaker 1: while others expressed opposition to using the IHRA definition of antisemitism,
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  Speaker 1: citing free speech concerns. The ADLs Mountain State's regional director
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  Speaker 1: emphasized the need for meaningful action to protect students. The
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  Speaker 1: Anti Defamation League has released new research highlighting that antisemitism
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  Speaker 1: is increasingly taking route beyond student protests and encampments, embedding
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  Speaker 1: itself directly within university classrooms, curricula, and faculty networks. Their
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  Speaker 1: report Antisemitism among faculty and in the classroom Trends, patterns,
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  Speaker 1: and institutional dynamics identifies recurring patterns such as pro terrorism
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  Speaker 1: narratives in coursework, offering extra credit for attending anti Israel rallies,
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  Speaker 1: and faculty singling out Jewish and Israeli students. Examples cited
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  Speaker 1: include a University of California Irvin profees describing the October
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  Speaker 1: seventh massacre as a gift from Allah, and a Cornell
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  Speaker 1: University professor expressing exhilaration about the attack. The report also
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  Speaker 1: notes coarse descriptions framing the conflict as an ongoing genocide.
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  Speaker 1: The ADL tracked sixteen ninety four antisemitic incidents on US
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  Speaker 1: campuses in twenty twenty four and five hundred eighty three
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, finding that while public incidents declined,
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  Speaker 1: faculty conduct continues to foster a hostile environment. A companion report,
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  Speaker 1: the Faculty Factor, maps organized faculty networks driving anti Israel activism.
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  Speaker 1: To address this, the ADL has launched a campus classroom
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  Speaker 1: reporting mechanism for students and staff to report bias. In Australia,
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  Speaker 1: new research reveals over one thousand, three hundred abusive posts
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  Speaker 1: targeting individuals who testified before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism.
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  Speaker 1: And social cohesion. This online harassment followed the deadly December
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five terror attack on Sydney's Bondy Beach and
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  Speaker 1: has since escalated. The Door Foundation researching antisemitism in Australia
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  Speaker 1: documented these posts, directed at witnesses, even those who testified
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  Speaker 1: under pseudonym. The abuse included neo Nazi material, false claims
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  Speaker 1: about Jewish expulsions, conspiratorial claims of globalist Jewish control, and
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  Speaker 1: imagery associated with Hamas propaganda. The most severe content called
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  Speaker 1: for witnesses and Jewish people to be executed, hanged, shot, firebombed,
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  Speaker 1: and interned in concentration camps. Witnesses were dehumanized compared to
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  Speaker 1: vermin and subjected to Holocaust denial and mockery. This activity
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  Speaker 1: occurred across multiple social media platforms and was not attributed
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  Speaker 1: to a single organizer. In a significant historical acknowledgment, the
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  Speaker 1: US Justice Department has officially recognized the nineteen ninety four
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  Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bridge shooting as an antisemitic attack. The Department sent
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  Speaker 1: a formal letter to Devora Halberston, mother of the victim,
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  Speaker 1: thirty two years after the event, marking a crucial recognition
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  Speaker 1: of the hate motivated nature of the crime. In New
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  Speaker 1: York City, reporting indicates a one hundred and eighty two
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  Speaker 1: percent surge in antisemitic crimes occurred during Mamdani's first month
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  Speaker 1: in office. A rabbi has expressed concerns that anti Israel
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  Speaker 1: rhetoric foster's hostility towards Jewish New Yorkers, and this issue
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  Speaker 1: was discussed in a meeting organized by the Mayor's office,
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  Speaker 1: according to reporting. Finally, testimony at Australia's Royal Commission on
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  Speaker 1: Antisemitism and Social Cohesion offers insight into the nature of
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  Speaker 1: extremist ideologies. Former religious extremist mubenot In Shaikh detailed his
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  Speaker 1: journey to deradicalization, stating that antisemitism appears to be the
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  Speaker 1: connective tissue across different extremist ideologies. Shaikh, who worked as
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  Speaker 1: an undercover operative combating extremism, observed this pattern in his
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  Speaker 1: decades of work. His testimony described how he became radicalized
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  Speaker 1: as a teenager, but grew disillusioned after nine slash eleven
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  Speaker 1: and eventually severed ties with extremist groups, embarking on a
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  Speaker 1: path of deradicalization. That's all for today's antisemitism Watch I'm
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  Speaker 1: Rachel Adler. Thank you for joining us as we continue
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  Speaker 1: to monitor and analyze the global landscape of antisemitism. This
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  Speaker 1: report was generated with AI assistance and may contain inaccuracies.
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  Speaker 1: Please verify important details with primary sources.