Name: Dylan Shokar
Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Technology: Free Speech v Hate Speech Online
Date of Fieldwork: January 30, 2023
Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):ADL (Anti Defamation League)
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:
By 2:15, we left class and started preparing together for the interview. Due to a technical issue, we really joined the zoom at 2:38 even though we entered at 2:30. “Could you tell us why you made the decision to join the ADL and why you have remained there?” Shaffer asked, after Dante formally excused our delay. While Scott’s concentration in civil rights issues while law school benefited organizations like the ADL, he admitted that he desired for a more hands-on experience. Before he joined the ADL, he attempted to bring the Jewish community back together and rebuild it while the iron curtain was being torn down. During this time, he helped Holocaust survivors. As an example of how quickly and broadly it spread, he also provided us with more details about how his children are adjusting to and learning about subjects he has never had to, such antisemitism. The rapid rise in antisemitism may largely be attributed to social media. We can see that in NJ in 2017, there were just 12 antisemitic incidents, as opposed to 179 in 2020. The majority of anti-Semitic incidents also occur in New York. In spite of this, there has been an upsurge in hate crimes committed against minorities in the US, and there are a few reasons why. One is that social media aids in uniting hateful individuals and turning people against one another.
Personally, I am shocked to learn how terrible things are for the U.S minorities and how things are only going to get worse, extremely fast. I was most shocked to learn that New York has the most anti-Semitic incidents. I can now see, though, that their large population made them a more desirable target.
