Anti-Defamation League

The Anti-Defamation League, commonly known as the ADL, is a Jewish American organization founded in 1913 through B'nai B'rith. It began with a focused mission: confronting defamation against Jews and defending them against prejudice and discrimination. Over time, its work expanded to include opposition to racism, hate crimes, threats to democracy, and discrimination affecting other communities. The organization consequently became one of the most prominent American institutions linking the fight against antisemitism with a broader defense of equal rights.

Founded in response to the Leo Frank case

The ADL was established by Sigmund Livingston in response to the trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man from Atlanta who was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan, an employee at a pencil factory he managed. Frank was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, and about two years afterward was abducted from prison and lynched by a mob. The case demonstrated the danger of public incitement, prejudice, and institutions that fail to protect minorities equally. It gave the new organization a practical purpose: to challenge defamation through reason and conscience, public action, and legal petitions when necessary.

Combating antisemitism and discrimination

The ADL's stated mission is to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all citizens. Its work has included campaigns against antisemitism, racism, and hate, as well as reports, assessments, and publications intended to inform the public and guide institutions. This combination of documentation and advocacy helped frame antisemitism not only as a threat to Jewish communities, but also as a wider challenge to the rule of law, human dignity, and equality.

The organization also addresses what it describes as threats to democracy, including online harassment and defamation, bias in education and the criminal-justice system, terrorism, and hate crimes. By combining research, education, public awareness, and advocacy, the ADL has been able to engage policymakers, schools, Jewish communities, and the broader public. Its influence lies not in a single campaign, but in maintaining sustained attention to the conditions that allow hatred to spread.

A history of civil-rights engagement

The ADL was also an early participant in the struggle for equal rights for Black Americans. During periods when Jews and African Americans faced racism, discrimination, and violence, Jewish and Black civil-rights organizations cooperated. That partnership reflected an important principle: protecting Jews from hatred could not be separated from defending equality for every person. Relations between parts of the two communities later cooled, among other reasons amid the growth of political Islam and anti-Israel positions among certain African American actors. The ADL's earlier civil-rights work nevertheless remains an important part of its institutional history.

A wide organizational reach

According to the material preserved in the archive, the ADL has an annual budget of more than $40 million, approximately 30 offices across the United States, and three offices outside the country—in Israel, Russia, and Italy. Its headquarters are in New York. Jonathan Greenblatt has led the organization since 2015. This network gives the ADL a platform for monitoring hate, assisting communities, producing public information, and engaging with government institutions, educational systems, and other decision-makers.

Why this legacy belongs in Moreshet

The Anti-Defamation League merits inclusion in Moreshet because it represents a significant chapter in the modern Jewish response to antisemitism and discrimination. Founded in the aftermath of the Leo Frank case, it transformed the defense of Jews against defamation, incitement, and violence into a continuing program of research, education, legal advocacy, and public action.

Its significance extends beyond communal self-defense. Its engagement with the struggle for Black civil rights, its attention to hate crimes and threats to democracy, and its effort to connect Jewish security with equal rights for all reflect the wider influence Jewish institutions can have on public life. Moreshet.com therefore preserves the ADL's story not simply as the history of an organization opposing antisemitism, but as the history of an institution that turned the memory of persecution into sustained civic work.