HEADLINES | 5
SPECIAL SECTION | 15
NEW JEWISH ADOPTION RITUAL
BUSINESS
Valley rabbi helps put a sacred seal on adoptions for Conservative Jews in the US
An overview of changes to the tax code and possible effects on taxpayers’ returns
FEBRUARY 22, 2019 | ADAR 17, 5779 | VOLUME 71, NUMBER 74
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ADL: Rise in online Thousands of Valley students hate, wide support for to learn about the Holocaust in new way action SUSAN C. INGRAM | CONTRIBUTING WRITER
NICK ENQUIST | STAFF WRITER
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erhaps the most striking and disturbing statistic the AntiDefamation League gleaned from its recent national survey of about 1,000 internet users is that close to 40 percent of Americans have experienced “severe online harassment.” Severe harassment includes sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats and sustained harassment. The survey, conducted Dec. 17-27, 2018, showed a surprising spike from a similar survey about online harassment by the Pew Research Center only a year prior. While that study found 41 percent of respondents had experienced any kind of harassment, compared to 53 percent in the 2018 ADL survey, only 18 percent characterized the online harassment as severe, while the 2018 ADL survey found 37 percent had experienced severe online harassment. The “scale and complexity of online hate has reached unprecedented levels,” said the ADL report, citing coordinated online harassment of high-profile targets including Jewish journalists and black public figures. While 11 percent of respondents said they were targeted because of religion, more Muslims at 35 percent than Jews at 16 percent said they were harassed because of their religion. Most commonly reported was online harassment based on
rand Canyon University (GCU) student Garrett Smith was not expecting that a presentation about the history of violins would help him better understand the human element of the Holocaust. As part of a class assignment last week, Smith attended a Violins of Hope lecture hosted by GCU, a SEE STUDENTS, PAGE 3
Local violinists Cynthia DuBrow, left, and Megan Asher, right, perform ‘Hava Nagila’ at Grand Canyon University’s Violins of Hope event. PHOTO BY NICK ENQUIST
Kelly’s US Senate run Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords and her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, call for greater civility in public discourse during the fractious 2016 campaign season. Last week, Kelly announced he was running to become the Democratic Party’s primary candidate to fill the late U.S. Sen. John McCain’s seat in next year’s special election. Giffords, a Jewish resident of Tucson, was seriously wounded during a mass shooting in 2011. Read more on Page. 4 PHOTO BY SOPHIA KUNTHARA/CRONKITE NEWS
SEE ADL, PAGE 2
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