The Jewish community in the United States faces rampant antisemitism and overt discrimination. Newspapers, books and plays frequently depict Jews with crude stereotypes.
Against this backdrop of bigotry and intolerance, Chicago attorney Sigmund Livingston puts forward a bold idea — to create an organization with a mission "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all…" ADL is founded with the clear understanding that the fight against one form of prejudice cannot succeed without battling prejudice in all forms.
Leo Frank, a Jewish businessman, is convicted of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old female employee, after a trial defined by antisemitism. When the Governor reduces his death sentence to life in prison, a hate-filled mob — including many influential community leaders — drags Frank from his prison cell and lynches him.
As World War I breaks out, negative stereotypes about Jews abound. In one of its first anti-bias actions, ADL distributes a memo signed by the publisher of The New York Times to his media peers, discouraging "objectionable and vulgar" media references to Jews.
Even a U.S. Army training manual advises that Jews are "more apt to malinger than the native born." Following ADL protests, the manual is promptly destroyed on orders of President Woodrow Wilson.
ADL objects to political cartoons in the U.S. that portray Russian Bolshevik revolutionaries with Jewish stereotypes. After ADL's intervention, The Associated Press promises "not to bring racial or religious prejudice into our reports."
1920s
Exposing extremist groups, ADL counters Ku Klux Klan-inspired violence against Jewish-owned businesses and religious institutions.
Industrialist Henry Ford becomes a force for promoting antisemitism through his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent, and is exposed for circulating The International Jew, based on the antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.
ADL challenges Ford's antisemitic propaganda by publishing informational pamphlets of its own, including "The Poison Pen" and "The Protocols-A Spurious Document."
1930s
The cloud of Fascism spreads across Europe, inspiring sympathetic homegrown movements in America. In educating Americans about the dangers these movements pose to democracy, ADL singles out the antisemitic, pro-Nazi agitation of the German-American Bund.
ADL speaks out against Father Charles Coughlin and his radio broadcasts that spew antisemitic diatribes and pro-German propaganda.
As antisemitic fervor and scapegoating of Jews for the Great Depression grows, ADL institutes the first independent fact-finding on extremist individuals and organizations….
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