About Us
Our History
The Eradicate Hate Global Summit was formed to honor the lives lost in the largest anti-Semitic attack in U.S. history. On October 27, 2018, a gunman motivated by hate ideologies murdered 11 Jews and injured others worshipping at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The Tree of Life synagogue is in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood, home to places of worship for all faiths and denominations as well as to generations of Jewish families. When such an horrific massacre can occur there, it can happen anywhere. And it has, in Buffalo, El Paso, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New York, Orlando, and Uvalde, to name a few.
The Eradicate Hate Global Summit is a vehicle for worldwide action. It held its first conference in Fall 2021 during the COVID pandemic, and almost 100 speakers from around the globe attended. The second conference in September 2022 attracted almost 300 speakers and over 2,400 people attended either in person or virtually.
The Summit’s annual conferences have drawn the world’s leading anti-hate experts, including high-ranking officials from the U.S. Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, and State, the National Center for Counterterrorism, and the White House as well as officials from state and local governments. International participants include the United Nations Special Advisor on Prevention of Genocide along with government representatives, civil society organizations, and researchers from around the globe, including Australia, Canada, Europe, UK, and New Zealand.
The Summit also draws representatives from tech companies; federal, state, and local law enforcement; the military and veterans; lawyers; doctors, psychologists, social workers and other mental health experts; educators and students; journalists and film-makers; former members of hate groups; and, most importantly, hate crime survivors and the families of victims.
The Eradicate Hate Global Summit now stands as the most comprehensive anti-hate conference in the world.
Our Mission
Our mission is to develop and deliver innovative, multi-disciplinary solutions to prevent hate-fueled violence based on religion, race, gender, sexual preference, ethnicity, nationality, or disability. It also provides a forum to hear the voices of survivors and the families of victims of hate-driven violence. While our solutions may require adaptation in local communities, they are intended to work across the worldwide map.
In practical terms, our mission is to break down silos and facilitate collaboration among the world’s experts in combating hate-motivated violence. But talk alone is not enough. Every conference speaker and panel must recommend an action item.
The Summit then assembles working groups of experts to develop the best of its ideas into concrete programs. Solutions drive action with real-world impact. For example:
• Partnering with the United Nations, the Summit’s Sports Working Group has developed “The Game Plan,” a global initiative to enlist professional athletes, teams and leagues to counter hate. NASCAR, NBA, WNBA, USWNT, NFL, NHL, MLS, the Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool Football Club, and major professional sports teams in Buffalo and Pittsburgh already have committed to participate, and other leagues are expected to join.
• Hate groups use video games to recruit. A working group is exploring how to use video games to convey messages of peace rather than hate.
• Education can change the future. To build the next generation of experts and providers, a working group is developing a recommended curriculum of anti-hate studies for colleges and graduate schools to adopt. Another working group is focused on programs to educate K-12 children.
• Families often don’t know where to turn for help when they see a family member at risk of becoming radicalized. A working group is compiling a directory of providers available in every state.
• As perpetrators are brought to trial, judges too often face defendants who try to turn the trial into a public platform to spew their hateful ideology. A working group is preparing a judicial toolkit to help judges manage those trials.
As a result of the 2022 Summit, over 20 working groups are hard at work.
Our Organization and People
In 2023, to sustain its operations over the long term, the Summit formed a non-profit corporation to run its operations. The Summit’s co-chairs of its Board of Directors are Mark A. Nordenberg, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh and chair of the University’s Institute of Politics, and Laura E. Ellsworth, partner-in-charge of Global Community Services Initiatives at the law firm of Jones Day. The Summit’s Board of Directors has 11 other distinguished members:
• Meryl Ainsman, past Board chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and Executive Director and Trustee of the Philip Chosky Foundation
• Catherine Augustine, Director, RAND Pittsburgh Office
• Leslie Braksick, Co-Founder and Senior Partner, My Next Season
• Jared Cohon, University Professor and President Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University
• Jeffrey Finkelstein, President and CEO, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
• Kenneth Gormley, President and Professor of Law, Duquesne University
• Saleem Ghubril, Executive Director, The Pittsburgh Promise
• Timothy Lewis, Counsel, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis and former federal district and appellate court judge
• Michele Rosenthal, Principal, Michele Rosenthal Consulting
• David Shapira, Chairman, The David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation and former Chair and CEO of Giant Eagle
• Herb Shear, Chairman, Chairman, Shear Family Office, and Chairman of G2.0.
The Board has appointed Charles H. Moellenberg, Jr., a retired Jones Day Pittsburgh partner, to serve as President of the new non-profit. Ms. Ainsman will serve as Secretary and Judge Lewis as Treasurer.
As of 2023, the Summit has no paid staff. It relies on an army of volunteers to function, along with independent contractors to produce the conferences, maintain its website, manage its public communications, and provide financial administration.
