metro
Online Hate
Spikes, Says
Annual Report
T
he 20th Annual Digital
Terror & Hate Report that
gives a grade to leading
social media platforms — Instagram,
Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,
Vkcom and Askfm — was released
May 1 by the Los Angeles-based
Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) at its
Museum of Tolerance in New York.
The only report of its kind, this year's
information finds that online hate, ter-
rorism, bigotry and intolerance are at
an all-time high, having spiked more
than 30 percent over the last year. SWC
will continue to meet with social media
companies to urge that they develop
and enforce appropriate protocols to
deal with digital hate.
The report grades the social media
companies on their commitment to
take down this material from their sites
and on whether bigotry and racism
is proliferating or decreasing on the im
sites year over year. This year, Twitter
received a D, YouTube a D-, Instagram
a C, Facebook a B+ and Tumblr a C.
The report represents 30,000 problem-
atic websites, forums and social media
platforms that are fueling hatred and
terrorism in the U.S.
and globally.
"We are con-
stantly seeing that
lone wolves, bul-
lies, terrorists and
other extremists
spew their hatred
and formulate their
Rabbi Cooper
plans first online
and then carry out
their mission offline," said Rabbi Rabbi
Abraham Cooper, SWC associate dean
and a leading expert in the analysis of
cyberspace extremism.
"The recent Kansas City JCC shoot-
ing by Frazier Glenn Miller, which first
took root online, is an example of this
subculture of hate formed online.
"If the world is going to effectively
deal with the growing threat from
lone wolf terrorists, the leading social
media companies, including Facebook,
Google, YouTube and Twitter, must do
more:'
Cooper added. "There are also rela-
tively unknown sites, such as vkcom,
which is very popular in Russia, that
remind us that we need to be constant-
ly vigilant, not only here in the U.S. but
also worldwide:'
SWC recently unveiled CombatHate,
a free app that gives children a way to
report bullying and hate incidents. It
teaches the most vulnerable how to rec-
ognize and expose these incidents. ❑
20
May 15 • 2014
Preliminary Exam Set
Zacks' shooting suspects in court.
Ronelle Grier
Contributing Writer
he courtroom of 48th District
Judge Kimberly Small was filled
with family members and other
supporters of the four suspects arrested
for the April 30 shooting and attempted
robbery of attorney David Zacks in his
Bloomfield Hills home. The suspects and
their attorneys appeared before Small on
May 12 to schedule a preliminary exami-
nation, which will take place on May 28.
The shooting took place around 11:45
p.m., when a man identifying himself
as a police officer rang Zacks' doorbell
and asked to be let into the house. When
Zacks refused and said he was going to
call police, the suspect fired five shots
through the front door. Zacks was hit
three times and taken to a nearby hospi-
tal for emergency surgery after his wife,
Rebecca, called 911. His condition is
stable.
Working with other local law enforce-
ments departments from the Major Case
Assistance Team (MCAT), Bloomfield
Hills police arrested three men;
Christopher Hernandez Montiel, 20,
Henry Williams, 20, and Devon Miller,
21, who is accused of doing the shooting,
and one woman, Cassandra Chobod, 23.
According to Bloomfield Hills Public
Safety Director David Hendrickson,
Chobod, who had a prior relationship with
Zacks and had visited his home, initiated a
plan to rob the home with the other three
suspects. When they discovered Zacks was
home, with his wife and two children, they
left the area and returned with a gun.
The suspects, who are charged with
multiple felonies, which include attempted
murder and conspiracy to commit armed
robbery, are being held on bonds of $5
million each for Miller and Williams and
$2 million each for Chobod and Monteil. If
convicted, they face up to life in prison.
Attorney Jonathan Jones, who is repre-
senting Hernandez Monteil, described his
client as a "good kid" who has never been
in trouble before.
Miller has retained local defense lawyer
Mitchell Ribitwer; Williams and Chobod
are represented by attorneys Michael
McCarthy and Markeisha Washington,
respectively.
Zacks is a partner at the Birmingham
law firm of Ishbia & Gagleard in
Birmingham, specializing in white-collar
criminal defense. ❑
Taubman Institute Fundraiser
Artists, scientists collaborate for event.
S
ome virtuosos express their talents
through clay, paint, wood, words
or dance. For others, the media are
the very cells and molecules of the human
body. An Evening of Art + Science" brings
them together for a gala fundraiser May 22
at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit
(MOCAD).
This event will unveil works inspired by
the pairing of 11 physician-researchers of
the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research
Institute at the University of Michigan
Medical School with noted artists from the
Detroit area and beyond. For months, the
artists have been meeting with their medical
counterparts to discuss the creativity in their
respective disciplines, and to gain ideas and
inspiration from the medical research they
are conducting.
The scientists and artists will discuss their
collaborations, and the art pieces will be
sold at auction, with proceeds used to fund
the Taubman Emerging Scholars program,
which helps early-career clinician-scientists
establish their laboratories.
The event will showcase breakthroughs
emerging from the labs of the Taubman
Scholars; all are practicing physicians and
U-M faculty as well as active scientific
researchers. The Institute is funded solely by
private philanthropy.
Participating artists include painter
Simone DeSousa, interactive artist Osman
Khan and visual artist Lynne Avadenka.
The show was curated by Lynn Crawford, a
MOCAD board member and writer.
Scientists in the project include Dr.
Valerie Castle, a cancer researcher and
chair of the U-M Health System's depart-
ment of pediatrics and communicable dis-
eases; Dr. Parag Patil, a U-M neurosurgeon
conducting the first intraspinal injections
of stem cells into patients with ALS; Dr.
Ronald Buckanovich, an associate professor
of gynecology testing a new drug for ovar-
ian cancer patients; and Dr. Eva Feldman,
neurology professor and director of the
Taubman Institute, principal investigator of
the ALS stem cell trial.
For a complete list, visit www.
taubmaninstitute.org/artscience.
The evening also will feature music, danc-
ing, dinner and cocktails. Dinner tickets are
available for a donation of $500, and after-
party tickets are $75. Tickets including the
special VIP reception before the event are
$1,000. To purchase tickets, contact Gail Ball
at (248) 705-0287.
❑
Frankel Institute
Fellows Announced
B
iblical sacrifices, European
imperial borderlands,
Roman architecture and
Iberian Conversos. That's just a few
of the topics that the 14 Frankel
Institute for Judaic Studies fellows
will research in 2014-15 at the
University of Michigan when they
gather around the theme of "Jews
and Empires:'
Established through a generous
financial contribution from the Jean
and Samuel Frankel Jewish Heritage
Foundation, the Frankel Institute pro-
vides annual fellowships for scholars
and artists around the world to con-
duct research on a given theme. With
the goal of advancing Jewish studies
globally, it remains the only program
of its kind at a public university in
the United States. Additionally, the
Institute offers lectures, symposia, art
exhibitions and musical performances
to the public.
"The theme of Jews and Empires,
because it applies to Jewish experi-
ences as imperial subjects in so many
times and places, will bring together a
particularly diverse group of scholars
who rarely get an opportunity to talk
to each other:' said Deborah Dash
Moore, Frankel Institute director. "It's
going to be a dynamite year:'
The new fellowship year will
begin in September, and the top-
ics of research promise to be fas-
cinating. Incoming fellow Reuven
Kiperwasser, for example, who teach-
es at the Open University of Israel,
will travel to Ann Arbor to study
Babylonian and Palestinian rabbis
who emerged from the Roman and
Sassanian empires.
"To accomplish this research proj-
ect successfully, I need a supportive
environment where I can express
and exchange ideas with colleagues
on the topics of my research and on
related topics:' he said. "I believe that
the Frankel Institute is an appropri-
ate place for this. I anticipate a fruit-
ful and enriching discourse within
its environs:'
The 2014-15 Frankel fellows
are Mira Balberg, Northwestern
University; Eitan Bar-Yosef, Ben-
Gurion University; Joshua Cole, Sara
Feldman, Zvi Gitelman, Mikhail
Krutikov, Devi Mays, Jindrich Toman
and Jeffrey Veidlinger, all from
University of Michigan; Reuven
Kiperwasser, Open University of
Israel; Gil Klein, Loyola Marymount
University; Alexei Siverstev, DePaul
University; Claude Stuczyniski, Bar-
Ilan University; and Deborah Yalen,
Colorado State University. ❑