Anti-Defamation League history

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.

Henry Ford’s distribution of anti-Semitic literature through The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper Ford owned, became a central focus of attention for the ADL in the 1920s.

The ADL and allied organizations pressured Ford until he issued an apology in 1927.

Under mounting pressure from the ADL and other groups, Ford closed The Dearborn Independent and issued an apology in 1929.

In 1933 the ADL moved offices to Chicago and Richard E. Gutstad became director of national activities.

The Anti-Defamation League was founded by B'nai B'rith as a response to attacks on Jews; the then recent contentious conviction of Leo Frank was mentioned by Adolf Kraus when he announced the creation of ADL. Livingston served as the ADL's chairman until his death in 1946.

ADL files its first amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief with the United States Supreme Court in 1947.

The ADL also sought to protect the separation of church and state and the rights of religious minorities in education, filing an amicus curiae brief in the 1948 Supreme Court case McCollum v.

ADL publishes the 1952 exposé, The Troublemakers, documenting how the Arab propaganda apparatus in the United States explicitly sought to foment anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments.

As anti-Communist fervor and conspiracy sweep the country, ADL stands out as a premier opponent of character assassinations, culminating in President Dwight Eisenhower's historic 1953 televised speech, during ADL's 40th Anniversary celebration, denouncing Senator Joseph McCarthy.

In 1960 the ADL commissioned sociologists at the University of California, Berkeley, to conduct surveys measuring anti-Semitic sentiment in the United States.

ADL National Director Benjamin Epstein stands to the right of Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy at a meeting at the White House on June 22, 1963.

Some of the study’s findings were presented by an ADL representative at the Second Vatican Council and played a role in that council’s condemnation of anti-Semitism and repudiation of the idea of Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus Christ in 1965.

The 1967 Six Day War serves as catalyst for "Dateline Israel," a series of periodic radio reports designed to enhance Americans' understanding of Israeli life.

In 1977 the ADL opened a headquarters in Jerusalem.

In 1979 it also launched a yearly survey of anti-Semitic threats, harassment, and violence in the United States, the Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents.

The 1982 conflict in Southern Lebanon prompts ADL to counteract inaccurate and biased media coverage, as well as to coordinate on-the-scene briefings for influential United States opinion leaders.

ADL publishes Computerized Networks of Hate, a prescient 1985 report raising concern about the spread of hate on new technology platforms, most notably how dial-up computer bulletin boards serve as a communications tool for any white supremacist with a modem and a home computer.

Foxman had served as national director since 1987.

ADL advocacy at the federal level leads to the passage of the Hate Crimes Statistics Act, signed into law in 1990.

The ADL released a 1991 report observing an increase in the use of public access television stations by extremist groups.

Following a wave of extremist violence across Germany in 1992, German officials and educators there invite ADL to bring its A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE® Institute to Germany to train students, teachers, social workers and law enforcement professionals.

Mitchell, a landmark 1993 decision pertaining to a Wisconsin law against hate crimes.

Mandela later became the first Black president of South Africa, in 1994.

Passed in 1996, the law establishes a ban on fundraising and material support for foreign terrorist organizations and bars their leaders from the United States

With public awareness about the impact of hate violence on the rise, ADL plays a central role in the first-ever White House Conference on Hate Crime in 1997-sparking enhanced community partnerships with law enforcement authorities to address the issue.

In 1999, the No Place for Hate® initiative is launched to counteract hate violence such as the Columbine High School shootings, the attack on the Los Angeles Jewish Community Center by white supremacist Buford Furrow, and the murders of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr.

In 2003, the ADL opposed an advertising campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called "Holocaust on Your Plate" that compared animals killed in the meat industry to victims of the Holocaust.

As of 2007, the ADL said it was archiving MySpace pages associated with white supremacists as part of its effort to track extremism.

The ADL opposed 2008 California Proposition 8, a ballot successful initiative that banned same-sex marriage.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which is signed into law in 2009 after more than a decade of ADL advocacy.

In 2015, the ADL opposed the State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts, state laws that used the United States Supreme Court decision in Burwell v.

Concerned with a sharp resurgence of antisemitism, ADL convenes in 2016 the inaugural “Never Is Now,” a first-of-its-kind summit focused on contemporary antisemitism and innovative strategies to address it.

In August 2017, hundreds of white nationalists and their supporters converge in Charlottesville, VA, for the Unite the Right rally, the largest public gathering of white supremacists in a decade.

The national chair of the governing board of directors is Esta Gordon Epstein; elected in late 2018 for a three-year term, she is the second woman to hold the organization's top volunteer leadership post.

In April 2019, a white supremacist opens fire at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in Poway, California, killing one worshipper.

In 2020, ADL joined with the NAACP, Color of Change, LULAC, Free Press, the National Hispanic Media Coalition and other organizations in the Stop Hate For Profit campaign.