1980s
ADL helps secure the posthumous pardon of Leo Frank — who was convicted in a trial marked by antisemitism and was lynched by an angry mob in 1915 — based on the State of Georgia's failure to protect him while he was held in prison.
ADL participates in the movement on behalf of Soviet Jewry, exposing violations of human rights and mounting a media campaign to secure the right for emigration; by the end of the decade, the collapse of the Soviet regime spurs a massive exodus of Jews to Israel and America.
Committed to pursuing freedom for Soviet Jews, ADL compiles a list of 11,000 Soviet "refuseniks." The list, sent to U.S. congressional leaders and published in The New York Times, helps the U.S. State Department's diplomatic efforts with the Soviets. Years later, Jews are permitted to leave.
The 1982 conflict in Southern Lebanon prompts ADL to counteract inaccurate and biased media coverage and coordinate on-the-scene briefings for influential U.S. opinion leaders.
ADL begins publishing what becomes an annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, which serves as a benchmark tool to spot and report trends in domestic vandalism, harassment and violence directed against Jews and Jewish institutions.
Responding to an increase in antisemitic incidents, ADL blazes a trail with its pioneering model hate crimes statute, proposing enhanced penalties for bias-motivated criminal conduct. In the following years, a new field of criminal law emerges, and as of the present day 46 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws based on or similar to ADL's model. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upholds the penalty-enhancement approach, patterned after ADL's model statute, in Wisconsin v. Mitchell, a landmark 1993 decision pertaining to a Wisconsin law against hate crimes. ADL advocacy at the federal level leads to the passage of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, signed into law in 1990.
ADL steps up its religious freedom advocacy, filing amicus briefs in cases dealing with Christmas observances in public schools, publicly sponsored sectarian displays and federal aid to parochial schools.
ADL works closely with the Japanese and Asian Pacific American communities to promote Congressional approval of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, a formal American apology for forced Japanese relocation and incarceration in Internment Camps during World War II. ADL's Education Department prepares a curriculum guide to teach these lessons of discrimination.
The fight to expose and counteract all forms of domestic extremism is reignited with the ascendancy of David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan who pursues elective office in Louisiana, and the emergence of Louis Farrakhan, the antisemitic firebrand leader of the Nation of Islam.
ADL publishes Computerized Networks of Hate, a prescient 1985 report raising concern about the spread of hate on new technology platforms, including how computer bulletin boards serve as a communications tool for white supremacists.
Following the murder of wheelchair-bound Leon Klinghoffer aboard the Achille Lauro cruise ship by Palestinian terrorists, the Klinghoffer family establishes a foundation, under the auspices of ADL, bearing their name and dedicated to fighting terrorism through legislation, education and advocacy.
ADL's New England Regional Office launches an innovative educational platform in partnership with WCVB-TV. A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® soon emerges as a platform for ADL's anti-bias training programs nationwide, customized for community, workplace and educational settings.