"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast. It is hosted by ADL New York/New Jersey Director Scott Richman and focuses on ADL's efforts to fight antisemitism and all forms of hate in the United States and around the world. The month of May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. What better time to both express concern over the rise in hate against the AAPI community and to also lift up ADL’s special partnership with The Asian American Foundation (or TAAF, as it is known). TAAF is tasked with responding to this hate, and its CEO Norman Chen joined this show to discuss the work of the organization and its partnership with ADL. To learn more about The Asian American Foundation, visit: https://www.taaf.org/. This podcast originally aired as a radio show on May 16, 2023 on WVOX 1460 AM.

From the Frontlines: ADL Works with The Asian American Foundation to Counter AAPI Hate

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and hate.

An unfortunate frontline since 10/7 has been the explosive rise in antisemitic incidents in K-12 schools in the United States. This is an important space for ADL as its staff works with thousands of schools across the nation touching millions of students each year. They respond to incidents of bias and hate in those schools, but they also provide programming to counter antisemitism, bias and discrimination, including teaching more than 125,000 educators to teach to about the Holocaust. That is why this rise in antisemitism in K-12 schools truly hits home. In response, ADL has become much more involved in advocacy in that space post 10/7 - so much so that a few months ago, ADL established the Ronald Birnbaum Center to Combat Antisemitism in Education. As one of its first initiatives, the Center decided to focus specifically on independent schools and and the situation there when it comes to antisemitism. The Center has just issued the report of its findings on independent schools across the nation, which is the subject of this show.

Shira Goodman joined this edition of "From the Frontlines" to tell us all of the details. She leads the Ronald Birnbaum Center and is ADL’s Vice President for Advocacy Shira Goodman.

To read the full report, visit: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/independent-k-12-schools-failing-respond-antisemitism.

This podcast was recorded in June 2025.



From the Frontlines: Independent K-12 Schools Failing to Respond to Antisemitism

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and hate through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

Today's frontline is unlike any we've faced before - it's digital, it's rapidly evolving, and it's reshaping how hate spreads and how we fight it. Nowhere is this more clear than with artificial intelligence. The irony, though is that the same technology that holds incredible promise for fighting hate is also being weaponized to spread it at unprecedented speed and scale. Today's conversation explores both sides of this digital battleground with three experts who are literally on the frontlines of this technological fight. 

1. Daniel Kelley, Director of Strategy and Operations at ADL's Center for Technology and Society. Daniel leads ADL’s efforts to understand how emerging technologies impact hate and extremism, and he's been instrumental in developing ADL's approach to AI governance.

2. Sara Aniano, a Disinformation Analyst at ADL's Center on Extremism. Sara tracks how AI is being used to create and spread false narratives that fuel antisemitism and other forms of hate, and her work helps us stay ahead of rapidly evolving disinformation tactics.

3. Tomer Poran, Vice President of Solution Strategy at ActiveFence, a company that uses AI to detect and counter online harms. Tomer brings a private sector perspective on how technology companies are grappling with these challenges and developing solutions.

Together, they help us understand not just the threats we face, but the tools we have to fight back.

This conversation was originally recorded in June 2025 as a moderated panel at ADL New York/New Jersey’s Annual Meeting. In the audience were the region’s top leaders and donors.

To read more about ADL's concerns about artificial intelligence, click here to view a recently released report on the subject from ADL's Center for Technology and Society: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/anti-jewish-and-anti-israel-bias-found-leading-ai-models-new-adl-report.

Correction: Please note that a statistic was used at minute 29:40 where Sara Aniano was talking about usage of ADL’s AI software. She said that it has analyzed "300 million text based messages," but she should have said "30 million text based messages."

From the Frontlines: How Artificial Intelligence Can Both Spread and Fight Hate

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and hate through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

If you're a Jewish parent, student, or community member, you've probably wondered whether you are protected where you live or where your kids go to school. With antisemitic incidents at historic highs, we can't afford to fight blind. We need to know exactly where the policy protections are strong and where they're worryingly weak. For the first time, we now have those answers. ADL has just launched the Jewish Policy Index - a groundbreaking tool that systematically maps and assesses policies affecting Jewish communities across the United States. Which states have robust hate crime laws? Which states have adopted the so-called IHRA working definition of antisemitism? Which jurisdictions are leaving Jewish communities vulnerable through weak or non-existent protections? This isn't just about data collection; it's about identifying where we need to fight for stronger protections and where we can build on existing successes.

To tell us how this game-changing resource works and what it reveals about the state of policy protections for Jewish Americans, this edition of "From the Frontlines" featured Danny Barefoot. He is ADL’s Senior Director for its new Ratings and Assessments Institute. Danny leads the team responsible for creating this unprecedented nationwide policy tracking system.

To see the results of ADL's Jewish Policy Index and to use its interactive tools, visit https://www.adl.org/jpi.

This conversation was recorded in August 2025.

From the Frontlines: Assessing All 50 States on Their Response to Antisemitism

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and hate through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

According to a recent ADL survey, a significant number of Jewish faculty members have considered leaving their positions. One in three has experienced antisemitic incidents on their own campuses. Seventy-three percent report that antisemitism has worsened since October 7th. And many are staying silent about their Jewish identity out of fear for their careers and safety. This is the stark reality revealed by this groundbreaking new Faculty Survey conducted jointly by ADL and the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) - the first comprehensive national study examining the experiences of Jewish faculty in American higher education.

The guest for this show is Masha Zemtsov, ADL's Associate Director for Advocacy. Masha has been instrumental in developing ADL's response to campus antisemitism and worked closely with AEN on this groundbreaking research, speaking directly with faculty members who are experiencing these troubling incidents firsthand.

To read the full survey results, visit: https://www.adl.org/resources/report/faculty-under-fire-antisemitism-and-anti-israel-bias-higher-education.

This conversation was recorded in September 2025.

From the Frontlines: Groundbreaking Report of Faculty Experience with Antisemitism

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and hate through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

Today, that frontline extends far beyond American borders to university campuses around the world, where Jewish students are being forced to conceal fundamental aspects of their identity just to navigate campus life. According to a groundbreaking new global survey by ADL and the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), more than three-quarters of Jewish university students worldwide are concealing their religious identity. This is the devastating reality revealed by the first comprehensive global study of its kind examining Jewish student experiences worldwide.

Dalia Grinfeld joined this podcast to discuss the survey's findings. She is ADL's Associate Director for European Affairs and has been instrumental in developing ADL's international response to campus antisemitism. Dalia has worked closely with WUJS on this unprecedented research engaging Jewish students from over 60 countries across six continents.

To read the full survey results, visit: https://www.adl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/2025-09/ADL-WUJS-Survey-Slide%3DDeck.pdf. You can also view the press release at this link: https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/78-jewish-students-hide-their-religious-identity-campuses-worldwide-adl

This conversation was recorded in September 2025.

From the Frontlines: The First Global Survey of Jewish Students and Antisemitism

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism and extremism through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

The frontline in this podcast is deeply personal because it's about one of our own. Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Princeton University doctoral student, was kidnapped in Baghdad on March 21, 2023, while conducting research for her dissertation. Leading the fight for her release was her sister Emma Tsurkov who is the Director of Quantitative Research in ADL's Center for Antisemitism Research. She never stopped advocating, never stopped demanding action, and never gave up hope. On September 9th of this year, Elizabeth was finally freed and returned home to Israel. To tell that story, Emma joined this podcast  to share her incredibly personal and powerful story.

To read the New York Times article on Elizabeth's ordeal mentioned in the podcast, visit: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/world/middleeast/tsurkov-kataib-torture-kidnap.html.

This conversation was recorded in November 2025.

From the Frontlines: Emma Tsurkov Fights for 903 Days to Bring Her Sister Elizabeth Home From Iraq

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

The past few years have seen an extraordinary rise in antisemitism as captured by ADL’s Annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents which basically shows a tripling of incidents nationwide since 10/7. Nowhere is that more evident than in New York and New Jersey which together account for more than 20% of incidents across the United States. Serious action needs to be taken. One step that has proven effective around the globe is the use of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism or IHRA for short. What is it? Why do we need it? and How can we make sure our states use it as an effective tool against antisemitism? is the subject of this podcast. It is an edited version of a webinar put on the by the ADL Long Island and ADL New Jersey activist groups in January 2026. It features two outstanding ADL colleagues:

1. Dan Granot, ADL’s Senior Director of Government Relations and Community engagement out of ADL’s Washington DC office.

2. Melissa Kraus Augenbraun, ADL’s Policy Director for the East Division.

To read more about the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism and ADL's views on it, visit https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/about-ihra-working-definition-antisemitism.

From the Frontlines: Everything You Need to Know About the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff  and supporters who are living that battle every day.

A boy stands in 1935 Berlin, about to become a bar mitzvah—the very week the Nuremberg Laws are enacted. He has a Lutheran mother. He could choose safety. Instead, he chooses to be a Jew. That choice would define his life—and nearly end it—as he spent years hiding in plain sight in Nazi Berlin, captured by the Gestapo four times, escaping three times, and surviving through a combination of luck, cunning, and the paradoxical help of the very Nazis who persecuted him.

This is the story of Pips, as he was known, though his real name was Gerd Philipsohn, and he became Gary Phillips shortly after arriving in this country and succeeding beyond his imagination. As we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day,  Dr. Georgette Bennett returned once again to this podcast in order to tell his story. She is a longtime ADL donor who tells the remarkable and personal story of her cousin Pips in her new book, "Half-Jew, Full Life: The Unlikely Journey of a Voluntary Jew from Nazi Persecution to the American Dream."

To read more about the book or to purchase it, visit: https://heresy-press.com/product/half-jew-full-life-by-georgette-bennett/.

This conversation was recorded in January 2026.

From the Frontlines: A Very Inspiring Holocaust Story

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff and supporters who are living that battle every day.

Picture this: You ask an AI assistant to summarize a document, and it provides you with arguments supporting the theory that Jews control the financial system—with no indication that this theory is harmful and no counterarguments offered. Or imagine a student asking AI to help write a YouTube script, and it generates content claiming "Jewish-controlled central banks are the puppet masters behind every major economic collapse."

This isn't science fiction. This is happening right now with some of the world's most widely used artificial intelligence systems. As AI increasingly shapes how people access information, form opinions, and make decisions, a critical question emerges: Are these powerful tools equipped to detect and counter antisemitism and extremism? Or are they unwittingly amplifying the very hate that ADL fights every day?

To answer that question, ADL conducted the first comprehensive evaluation of how large language models respond to antisemitic and extremist content—testing over 25,000 interactions across six major AI systems: ChatGPT, Claude, DeepSeek, Gemini, Grok, and Llama. The results are now available in ADL's groundbreaking new AI Index.

Alisa Feldman is ADL's Director of Research at the Ratings and Assessments Institut. She led the research behind this unprecedented Index and joined this podcast to walk through what her team discovered about AI's ability—or inability—to combat hate.

To see all of the findings in ADL's AI Index, visit: https://www.adl.org/adl-ai-index.

This conversation was recorded in February 2026.

From the Frontlines: Can AI Detect and Combat Antisemitism?

"From the Frontlines" is an ADL podcast which brings listeners to the frontline in the battle against antisemitism, hate and extremism through conversations with ADL staff who are living that battle every day.

Imagine walking into a room with thousands of people you have never met before and realizing — maybe for the first time in a long time — that you are not alone. That every person around you, regardless of their background, their politics, or their faith, is there for the same reason you are: because they refuse to be silent in the face of hate.

That is what it feels like to walk into Never Is Now, the world's largest summit on antisemitism and hate.
We know that 46% of the world's adult population harbor antisemitic attitudes — more than double the number of just a decade ago. We know that antisemitism is rising on campuses, in workplaces, online, and in communities across the country and around the world. And we know that the answer to hate is never silence. It is action.

On March 16th and 17th, Never Is Now returns to New York City, and this edition of the "From the Frontlines" podcast offers an exclusive sneak peek at what to expect. Allison Musmand, ADL's Vice President of Marketing, joined the show to provide all of the details. She is the driving force behind bringing Never Is Now to life this year,  making sure that thousands of attendees have an experience that doesn't just inform them, but transforms them into active fighters against hate.

To see all of the details and to register for Never is Now, just visit https://neverisnow.org/. Listeners of this podcast can save 20% off the cost of registration by entering the promotion code SAVE20.

This conversation was recorded in February 2026. Note that it was recorded just prior to the conflict in the Middle East and does not reflect the ways in which ADL has pivoted to deal reflect that reality in the Summit.

From the Frontlines: ADL Works with The Asian American Foundation to Counter AAPI Hate

Scott Richman

Related tracks