The ADL: A Century of Fighting Antisemitism and Hate

Born from Injustice

In the spring of 1913, a young woman named Mary Phagan was found murdered in the basement of a pencil factory in Atlanta, Georgia. Leo Frank, the factory’s Jewish superintendent — a northern-born Jew in the Deep South — was arrested, tried, and convicted in an atmosphere of mob fury, antisemitic slander, and prosecutorial misconduct. When the governor commuted his death sentence after reviewing the deeply flawed case, a mob dragged Frank from prison and lynched him.

The Leo Frank case shook American Jewry. It revealed that antisemitism was not just a European problem — it was alive and dangerous in the United States. Within months, a Chicago lawyer named Sigmund Livingston, working under the umbrella of B’nai B’rith, founded the Anti-Defamation League with a mission that was both specific and universal: “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”

That was 1913. More than a century later, the ADL remains one of the most prominent and influential civil rights organizations in the world.

Early Decades: Changing American Culture

In its first decades, the ADL focused on combating the casual antisemitism that permeated American life. Jews were excluded from hotels, clubs, universities, and neighborhoods through quotas and restrictive covenants. Stereotypes of Jews as greedy, dishonest, or disloyal circulated freely in media, literature, and public discourse.

The ADL worked to change this — not through confrontation alone but through education and relationship-building. It developed programs for schools, worked with Hollywood studios to reduce antisemitic portrayals, and built alliances with other minority groups facing similar discrimination.

During World War II, the ADL documented and publicized Nazi atrocities and fought against American isolationism and Nazi sympathizers at home. After the war, it was instrumental in pushing for civil rights legislation and fair housing laws.

The Civil Rights Era

The ADL’s involvement in the broader civil rights movement is one of its most significant chapters. In the 1950s and 1960s, the organization worked alongside African American civil rights leaders, supporting desegregation efforts and anti-discrimination legislation.

ADL lawyers filed amicus briefs in landmark Supreme Court cases, including Brown v. Board of Education. The organization helped draft model anti-hate-crime legislation that became the template for state and federal laws. Its alliance with the NAACP, the Urban League, and other civil rights organizations reflected a core principle: antisemitism and racism are branches of the same tree, and fighting one means fighting the other.

This commitment was not without complexity. Relations between the Jewish community and other minority groups have sometimes been strained by competing priorities and perspectives. But the ADL’s fundamental position — that bigotry against any group threatens all groups — has remained consistent.

Monitoring Extremism

One of the ADL’s most important functions is its work as a monitor of extremist movements. The organization maintains extensive databases on hate groups, tracks online extremism, and provides intelligence to law enforcement agencies.

The ADL was among the first organizations to recognize the threat of far-right extremism in the United States, documenting militia movements, white supremacist organizations, and neo-Nazi groups long before they entered mainstream awareness. It has also tracked antisemitism from the far left and from Islamist extremist movements.

In the digital age, the ADL has expanded its monitoring to social media platforms, working with technology companies to address online hate speech, harassment, and radicalization. Its Center on Extremism produces reports and briefings used by law enforcement, journalists, and policymakers.

The Annual Audit

Since 1979, the ADL has published its annual Audit of Antisemitic Incidents — the most comprehensive tracking of antisemitic events in the United States. The audit categorizes incidents as harassment, vandalism, or assault and tracks them by state, type, and location.

The numbers tell a disturbing story. After decades of relatively stable levels, antisemitic incidents in the United States have risen sharply in recent years, reaching record highs. The audit has become an essential tool for understanding the scope and nature of antisemitism in America and for advocating for stronger responses.

Education and Prevention

Beyond monitoring and advocacy, the ADL invests heavily in education. Its A World of Difference program has trained millions of students and adults in anti-bias awareness. Its No Place for Hate initiative works with schools to create inclusive environments. Its resources on the Holocaust, antisemitism, and extremism are used in classrooms across the country.

The ADL also runs programs focused on law enforcement training, helping police departments recognize and respond to hate crimes, and on cyberbullying prevention for young people.

Controversies and Criticism

Like any large, long-standing organization, the ADL has faced criticism. Some on the left have accused it of conflating criticism of Israeli government policies with antisemitism. Some on the right have viewed its monitoring of extremism as politically biased. Internal debates about the organization’s scope — should it focus exclusively on antisemitism or address all forms of bigotry? — have surfaced periodically.

These debates reflect the genuine difficulty of the ADL’s position: fighting hatred in a polarized society where the definition of hatred itself is contested.

A Living Mission

More than a century after its founding, the ADL’s mission feels as urgent as ever. Antisemitism has not disappeared — it has adapted, finding new expressions online and in political movements across the ideological spectrum. The organization founded in response to a lynching in Georgia continues to fight the defamation of the Jewish people and to insist that justice and fair treatment belong to everyone.

The ADL’s history is, in many ways, a history of American antisemitism — and of the refusal to accept it.