NEW YORK, May 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Just days after the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, at a time of normalized and rising extremism, interfaith policymakers, legal and policy experts, and social media influencers gathered today in Midtown Manhattan for Unite Against Extremism, a half-day mobilization summit presented by The Lawfare Project and the #EndJewHatred movement.
Held on #EndJewHatred Day, the event focused on equipping attendees with practical tools and strategies to confront rising extremism, including Islamist extremism and Jew-hatred.
The summit featured keynote remarks, panel discussions, and interactive sessions aimed at translating concern into action, highlighting legal, civic, and community-based approaches to addressing hate and protecting democratic values. Each panel discussion ended with calls to action for attendees.
Leo Terrell, Chair of the U.S. Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, announced two forthcoming initiatives—one in which the DOJ will be “going to cities throughout this country and looking at the problems of their failure to address antisemitism” and another that will involve the creation of “an organization…involving people like you throughout the country to fight this problem.”
Terrell declared:
“Fighting antisemitism is not a Jewish issue. It’s not an American issue. It’s a Western civilization issue […] We are obligated not just on a federal level. On a local level we need to retake our local administrators, our local prosecutors. We’ve got to retake our school districts to ensure the curriculum. We have to take over the local cities that are more than the national level because that is where the unlawful activities are occurring every day, and there’s no action.”
He called for hate crime charges in incidents of violence, especially in terrorist acts motivated by radical Islamic extremism.
Brooke Goldstein, Founder and Executive Director of The Lawfare Project, underscored the urgency of turning concern into action:
“We chose to mark April 29 with a high-profile interfaith summit because the threat we are facing is not isolated, and it does not stop with the Jewish community. The attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a stark reminder that radicalization doesn’t stay online or on college campuses. Unite Against Extremism is about moving beyond awareness and into coordinated action, bringing religious and civic leaders together to dismantle a radicalization pipeline that has been allowed to grow unchecked and now poses a direct threat to our civil rights, and our democracy itself.”
Speaking about the current work of The Lawfare Project, Goldstein pointed to the recent case against Carnegie Mellon University, an institution that received nearly a billion dollars from Qatar.
Jonathan Schanzer, Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, explained terrorist networks’ infiltration of the U.S. through elaborate funding schemes and rampant foreign funding on college campuses. Organizations shut down for terror financing have funneled money into universities to brainwash young Americans with Jew-hatred. Congress has been “a weapon of mass discussion” rather than action, Schanzer said, and called on Congress to move on this important issue.
Lizzy Savetsky, a Jewish rights activist, spoke to the growing normalization of extremism and the urgent need for collective action to confront it:
“We are living through a moment where extremism is no longer hiding in the shadows—it’s being normalized and propped up by mainstream media, well-regarded institutions, celebrities, and politicians. This is not a Jewish issue—it is a societal one. History has shown us that when hate is mainstreamed against one group, everything unravels. This is what is happening now and much of the world is too blind to see or too scared to speak out. As Jews, we know what happens when the world stays silent. That is why we have a responsibility to speak up, to stand up, and to defend not only our own community but the very civil liberties that protect all people.”
Throughout the program, speakers discussed the top issues of the day in confronting extremism, like AI-generated social media campaigns funded by the IRGC and the presence of foreign-funded, pro-terror networks within the country.
Attendees left the summit with a clearer understanding of the tools available to them—from legal recourse and policy engagement to community organizing and public advocacy—reinforcing the event’s core purpose: to move beyond awareness and toward meaningful action.
Select event images are available here.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
About The Lawfare Project
The Lawfare Project is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to uphold the civil and human rights of the Jewish people through legal actions, public advocacy, and educational initiatives. Its efforts are supported by an international network of more than 900 attorneys.
About #EndJewHatred
#EndJewHatred is a grassroots movement centering on Jewish liberation from all forms of oppression and discrimination. It is working to eliminate Jew-hatred from Western culture through peaceful direct action and education.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
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