StopAntisemitism.org
Formation2018
TypeNonprofit organization
Executive Director
Liora Rez
Websitestopantisemitism.org

StopAntisemitism.org is an American non-profit watchdog organization focused on combating antisemitism.

History

According to the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, social media influencer Liora Rez founded StopAntisemitism.org in 2018 to monitor and expose online antisemitism. Its stated mission as of 2019 was "Holding Antisemites Accountable and Creating Consequences For Their Actions".[1]

In October 2019, StopAntisemitism.org sent a petition with 2,000 signatures to the US Department of Education calling on the agency to keep the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) out of college campuses. The petition said CAIR pushes "Islamist propaganda, anti-Semitism, and anti-American bias" onto college campuses.[2]

StopAntisemitism has reported instances of alleged antisemitism from figures such as Ferris State University professor Thomas Brennan,[3] television personality Alton Brown,[4] activist Marc Lamont Hill,[5] and journalist Christiane Amanpour.[6]

Starting in 2019, the organization began a yearly competition to select a figure to be named "Antisemite of the Year". Thousands of people voted in a poll, which resulted in Ilhan Omar beating out Louis Farrakhan and Richard B. Spencer as the inaugural winner of the contest.[7][8][9]

In 2020, StopAntisemitism.org named CUNY School of Law student and Palestinian activist Nerdeen Kiswani "Antisemite of the Year";[10] StopAntisemitism.org accused Kiswani of, among other things, glorifying terrorism and promoting violence in her social media posts and public speaking, and posted a video of Kiswani pretending to threaten to set on fire an Israel Defense Forces hoodie worn by a friend.[10][11] Kiswani said the video was three years old, and criticized the organization.[10] The organization's naming of Kiswani came in response to an effort by a group of anti-Zionist CUNY students, many of them Jewish, to pass an alternate definition of antisemitism in the student senate rather than the IHRA definition.[12]

In December 2022, StopAntisemitism named Kanye West the "Antisemite of the Year".[13]

References

  1. ^ Dresner, Stacey (September 24, 2019). "Connecticut woman launches a watchdog group that takes aim at antisemitism". Jewish Ledger. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  2. ^ Ghermezian, Shiryn (October 28, 2019). "Watchdog group launches petition to keep CAIR off American college campuses". JNS.
  3. ^ Bandler, Aaron (November 25, 2020). "Professor On Leave After Tweeting 'COVID-19 Is Another Jewish Revolution'". The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  4. ^ "Food Network star Alton Brown makes antisemitic tweet, then apologizes". Jerusalem Post. November 14, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  5. ^ Richman, Jackson (December 26, 2018). "New watchdog aims to battle bias and hatred against Jews". Jewish News Syndicate. Retrieved November 29, 2020.
  6. ^ "CNN Host Amanpour's Comparison of 'Kristallnacht' to Trump Era Derided as 'Despicable'". Algemeiner Journal. November 13, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  7. ^ Reich, Aaron (January 7, 2020). "Ilhan Omar voted 2019's antisemite of the year". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  8. ^ "American public votes Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar 'Antisemite of the Year'". Jewish News Syndicate. January 6, 2020. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  9. ^ "A NGO names Rep. Ilhan Omar anti-Semite of the year 2019". i24 News. January 6, 2020. Retrieved 2020-11-29.
  10. ^ a b c Leland, John (2021-01-22). "What Zoom Does to Campus Conflicts Over Israel and Free Speech". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  11. ^ Ben-Nun, Sarah (December 23, 2020). "Antisemite of the year: A law student from New York". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
  12. ^ Rosenfeld, Arno (April 15, 2021). "'It was a disaster': Inside a fierce battle over antisemitism at CUNY". The Forward. Retrieved 2021-06-03.
  13. ^ "Kanye West named antisemite of the year". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
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