CLOSE-UP And Justice For All The Anti-Defamation League is dedicated to fighting prejudice on all fronts. For ADL employees and volunteers, working with hatred and fear is part of the territory. office, which is now one of 31 regional offices in the United States. It has Special to the Jewish News European offices in Paris and Rome, n a cold Saturday evening one in Israel and affiliated offices in last November, a young Latin America and Canada. The national office, head- Orthodox Jew walked out quartered in New York, is divided in- of his synagogue. His prayer book in hand, he to many different divisions: • The Civil Rights division is was hurrying home to a hot supper ADL's front line in confronting awaiting him. threats to the security of the Jewish "Hey, Jewboy! Heil Hitler!" came community. a voice from a passing car filled with • The Intergroup Relations divi- youths. sion works toward achieving greater Was it a harmless prank or just a understanding of Jews, Judaism and case of boys being boys? Jewish concerns. "Absolutely not," says Laura • The Community Service divi- Smith, assistant director, Michigan sion supervises and coordinates the regional office of the Anti-Defamation ADL's coast-to-coast network of 31 League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith. regional offices. This incident wasn't reported • The International Affairs divi- because the victim didn't think sion is concerned with events and anything could be done. But according trends affecting Jews abroad. to Smith, any case of vicious bigotry • The Development division is a cause for concern. mobilizes financial support for the "There is a big range when it League by conducting the annual comes to anti-Semitic incidents. This ADL fund-raising appeal. type of prank should not be con- • The Communications division is sidered harmless although over reac- the voice of the Anti-Defamation ting isn't the answer either," she says. League, projecting the agency's Had this incident been reported, policies, programs and concerns to the many steps could have been taken. league's own constituency, to the First, the ADL would have found out Jewish community and to the general the location of the occurrence, record- public. ed descriptions of the car and people .• The Leadership division seeks involved, contacted the police to find out and develops national leaders out about reoccurrences and asked through seminars and activities. the police to beef-up patrols. The regional offices are not "It's unusual that these types of separate entities from ADL head- incidents are totally isolated," Smith quarters although, on a day-to-day says. "Victimized people tend to feel basis they make their own decisions better knowing that it wasn't just and handle their own complaints. In them?' the Michigan regional office, for in- The ADL was founded in 1913 to stance, three employees — Lobenthal, secure justice for all people and to Smith and Carla Newman, assistant combat defamation of Jews and other director — run the whole department. minorities. They consider themselves to be Richard H. Lobenthal, Midwest "generalists." Each is responsible for director of the ADL, explains, "a the intake of complaints, fact finding, society that tolerates prejudice fund raising and phone soliciting. against any group is unsafe itself. In Lobenthal says volunteer workers order for a minority people to be are a major part of the staff. Most secure, they must dwell in a country volunteer workers are board that protects all." members. These members, who serve The ADL began in a Chicago law three-year terms, determine policy, RENEE GLOVINSKY The offices of the ADL. 24 FRIDAY, JUNE 2, 1989 make contributions and have enough flexibility to attend monthly meetings. There are 165 board members in Michigan, says Robert Gordon, president of the Michigan Regional advisory board. Policy making is one of the most important duties of the board, Gordon says. He explains that most policies are first recommended by the regional board to be debated by one or more divisioris pertaining to the issue. The policies are reviewed on the national level. This process is usually done three times a year. Gordon, whose one-year term will be up in June, has devoted much time to the ADL. Before becoming ADL president, he served six years as vice president. "I feel that professionals who are doing particularly well need to return something to the community. This is one way that I can do this," Gordon says. All funds raised by each regional branch are sent to the national office and then, Gordon says, redistributed to the regional offices from an annual budget. Funded completely by donations and fund raisers, the ADL is a non-profit institution. One of the many functions of the ADL is publishing of the annaul audit of anti-Semitic incidents throughout the country. During 1988, the League reported 823 episodes of vandalism and desecration and 458 acts of harassment, threat and assault against Jewish individuals. This led to the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in more than five years. The increase can be attributed to three factors, Smith says. The first is the intifada, the uprising by Palesti- nians in the West Bank and Gaza. This, she says, was clearly related to a high number of anti-Semitic in- cidents including bomb threats and phone or mail threats. The second fac- tor is the increase of young neo-Nazi "Skinheads" around the country, especially in California. The third reason is the rising incidents on col- lege campuses, which have more than doubled since the ADL's 1987 survey. For ADL employees, working with hatred and fear comes with the ter- ritory. "We don't consider ourselves in danger, though," Lobenthal says. But one may disagree with that statement when challenged by an intercom and television camera at the League's entrance.