On August 7, over 120 national, state and local Jewish organizations, including Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey, signed a letter calling on Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook, to take action and stop the growth of anti-Semitism, racism, violent hatred and disinformation on Facebook by implementing the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance) definition of anti-Semitism.

The letter petitioned for the removal of public and private hate group pages, systematic changes to better identify anti-Semitism and against the spread of disinformation and bias news.

Just four days later, on August 11th, Facebook announced new polices that tackle hate speech, bigotry and stereotypes diverted toward the Jewish community.

This is a huge and important step forward in combating anti-Semitism in the digital world. Federation is proud to be a part of this change. 

To learn more about the issue of hate being spread through social media, watch this address from 2019 in which comedian and perfomer, Sacha Baron Cohen, was the ADL's keynote speaker. Though humorous in parts, he delivered an engaging and impactful overview on the dangerous social trends of hate, bias and bigotry. View it here.