Daniel Levitas

Website : http://www.terroristnextdoor.com
Residence : Atlanta, GA

Biographical information
Daniel Levitas is a writer, researcher and expert on antisemitism and the activities of white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations. His book, The Terrorist Next Door. The Militia Movement and the Radical Right (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, November 2002), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. Levitas is also a contributing author to Anti-Semitism in America Today (Birch Lane Press, 1995) and a contributing writer to Groliers Multimedia Encyclopedia on the history of American anti-Semitism, hate crimes and the U.S. militia movement. He has written for the Nation, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, Roll Call, Congress Monthly and other publications.

Writing recently in Reform Judaism magazine, Levitas noted that fully 35 million adult Americans (17%) are classified as "strongly anti-Semitic, 65 million believe that Jews killed Christ, 58 million believe that Jews control Wall Street, and 48 million believe Jews control the media. According to Levitas, heightened Jewish visibility has now become a significant spur to antisemitism. "Victimization does not appear to elicit sympathy," he argues. "In fact, the very opposite may be true--when Jews suffer, be it through war or terrorist attacks, antisemitism often rises."

Since 1986, Levitas has testified as an expert witness, or provided pretrial consulting, for either the prosecution or the defense in more than ten states and in Canada. His expertise includes such areas as the history of American anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan, the Skinhead movement, the tax protest movement, the Aryan nations, white racist prison gangs, and hate-motivated violence.

Mr. Levitas has conducted training sessions and seminars for academics and students, public officials, community leaders and law enforcement officers throughout the United States. He has lectured widely at colleges and universities (the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; the JFK Memorial Library in Boston; Tulane University in New Orleans, etc.), and his speeches and public presentations have been sponsored by groups as diverse as the American Jewish Committee, the W.E.B. Dubois Center for Afro-American Studies at Harvard University, the Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Jewish Book Festivals in more than a dozen cities, and the Rural Sociological Society.

His authoritative opinion has been cited in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and the Chicago Tribune, and he has appeared on news programs broadcast by CNN, ABC, CBS and National Public Radio, among numerous other media outlets.

Discussion topics

• Rising antisemitism in the post 9/11 era
• The relationship between the Jewish community and Christian Zionists
• Domestic terrorism and paramilitary hate after 9/11: The challenge to pluralism and democracy
• Strategies for countering antisemitism, racism and bigotry in a political and social context
• The conflict between civil liberties and national security in light of the threat of terrorism, both domestic and foreign.
• Other general topics: Hate Groups & Hate Crimes, Holocaust Revisionism, Religious Pluralism and the Christian Right.

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