If you think hatred and prejudice have been relegated to society's margins, Mark Weitzman wants to set you straight.

Weitzman, director of the Task Force Against Hate and Terrorism and the associate director for education at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's New York City branch, was the keynote speaker at the 27th annual colloquium at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft on May 9.

For Weitzman, his task force has its work cut out for it in the mainstream.

"The task force confronts extremism wherever it exists," Weitzman told NJ Jewish News. "In today's world, extremism can be found in educational and governmental institutions, local communities, and foreign countries. Our challenge is to develop strategies to combat Holocaust denial and to educate students and faculty about anti-Semitism and bigotry on college campuses."

As a recognized expert in the fields of extremism and cyber-hate, Weitzman has worked with a wide variety of groups, including the United States Congress, the United Nations, the European Union, the U.S. embassy in Berlin, the U.S. Army, and the FBI.

In 2004, he was one of the featured speakers at the UN's first-ever conference on anti-Semitism, and in 2005, he spoke to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe conference in Cordoba, Spain, about anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance.

In 2007, Weitzman also chaired the Working Group on Internet and Media Issues at the Global Forum on Anti-Semitism that was convened by the Israeli government.

His decision to work for the Simon Wiesenthal Center stems from his own awareness of racial injustice.

"I am not a child or grandchild of Holocaust survivors," Weitzman said. "For me, it was a decision to deal with anti-Semitism as an aspect of society that needed work, and also to be able to apply those lessons to wider issues of intolerance."

He often refers to Wiesenthal during public speaking engagements.

"When I talk to students, I often use the life of Simon Wiesenthal as a model," Weitzman said. "He experienced the horrors of Nazi persecution and survived 13 forced labor and death camps, including Janowska, Plaszow, Buchenwald, and Mauthausen. After the war, he devoted the rest of his life to finding war criminals in order to prevent another Holocaust."

Citing Wiesenthal, who died in 2005 at age 96, as an example, Weitzman said people can endure incredibly difficult times and still be able to accomplish great things.

"There is unbelievable suffering and genocide taking place today in Darfur and elsewhere in Sudan; there are people there who have lost everything, and yet they are trying to restore their country," he said. "The only way the perpetrators can be brought to justice is if the global community voices its outrage and exerts pressure on governments throughout the world to take action against these criminals."

The student population in the United States is in a unique position to play a role in promoting justice, he said.

"These young men and women live in a democracy, and they have learned, or are learning, about the values of freedom of speech and other democratic principles," Weitzman said. "They know right from wrong. They can get involved and join those who are trying to convince the world community to recognize and acknowledge these situations and do something about them."

And the current situation in the Middle East also mandates global attention, he added.

"There are members of the Arab population who say they are being blamed for the Holocaust because the State of Israel is being forced upon them," Weitzman said. "They are trying to de-legitimize support for the Jewish state."

Wiesenthal was keenly aware of the threats to Israel and the racial prejudice that exists in the region; in some instances, the religious hatred could be traced back to the Holocaust, Weitzman said.

He often tells students about Wiesenthal's response to those who asked him about his life choices and his pursuit of Nazi war criminals.

"He said that when ‘we come to the next world and meet the millions of Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, and they ask us what we have done, some will say they became jewelers, others will say they built houses. But I will say that I never forgot them.'"