Anti-Semitism and the Alt-Right in the United States

Speaker: Mark Potok, former Senior Fellow, Southern Poverty Law Center

Oct 2, 2017

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Davis Center, Silver Maple Ballroom (Room 400)

University of Vermont

Free and Open to the Public

Mark Potok is an internationally renowned expert on the American radical right who for 20 years helped lead the legendary Southern Poverty Law Center in exposing hate groups, right-wing terrorism, and the rapidly increasing infiltration of extremist ideas into the political mainstream. In that role, Potok faced numerous death threats from white supremacists and constant vilification by leaders of the far-right media — a remarkable measure of just how effective his work was. Potok has been described in one book on social justice activists as having “a reputation as the preeminent editorial commentator who follows the American radical right.”

As the director of the SPLC’s Intelligence Project and, later, Senior Fellow at the SPLC and Editor in Chief of its award-winning “Intelligence Report” investigative magazine, Potok was a key spokesman for the SPLC, a civil rights organization based in Alabama. He has testified before the U.S. Senate, the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, the Helsinki Commission, and in other key venues. An acclaimed and dynamic speaker, he has given scores of keynote talks in university, government and other settings throughout the United States and Europe. They include such prestigious forums as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Potok’s study of the radical right began even before he joined the SPLC in 1997. As a national reporter, he covered the 51-day siege in Waco, Texas, that led to the antigovernment militia movement; the Oklahoma City bombing and the trial of mass murderer Timothy McVeigh that followed; and many other instances of right-wing extremism and violence. He has led numerous investigations into various aspects of right-wing extremism, winning key awards for investigative reporting and other journalistic efforts for himself and for the Report.

Co-Sponsored by UVM Hillel and the UVM Miller Center for Holocaust Studies