This was a league to try and settle down the people and groups that were against immigrants and anything different from the average white man. One of these groups was the ADL was trying settle the Ku Klux Klan.
During the 1920's, ADL began using the weapon of exposure to battle the bigotry of the millions of white-robed Ku Klux Klan members. The Klan boycotted Jewish merchants, vandalized their stores and burned crosses outside synagogues and other Jewish institutions. In 1923, the KKK Imperial Wizard condemned Jews as "an unblendable element...alien and unassimilable...money mad." The League challenged Henry Ford's circulation of the infamous anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.
ADL circulated pamphlets by Sigmund Livingston on The Protocols -- A Spurious Document and another, The Poison Pen, targeting The Dearborn Independent. The agency called on President Woodrow Wilson and former Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to denounce Ford's anti-Semitism. After years of calumny, Ford publicly apologized to the Jewish people. In a letter to ADL's Sigmund Livingston, he expressed hope that "hatred of the Jews, commonly known as anti-Semitism, and hatred against any other racial or religious groups, shall cease for all times."
Another insidious form of anti-Semitism featured classified ads that clearly discriminated against Jews in employment and housing. Colleges and medical schools had "quotas" limiting the admission of Jews. ADL established facts to influence public opinion against job discrimination and quotas in higher education, and sought legal remedies.
Congress passed laws severely restricting immigration, diminishing the flow of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. ADL learned two very significant lessons in the 1920's: achieving equality needed affirmative techniques as well as defensive efforts, and the welfare of any one minority was intertwined with the welfare of all
During the 1920's, ADL began using the weapon of exposure to battle the bigotry of the millions of white-robed Ku Klux Klan members. The Klan boycotted Jewish merchants, vandalized their stores and burned crosses outside synagogues and other Jewish institutions. In 1923, the KKK Imperial Wizard condemned Jews as "an unblendable element...alien and unassimilable...money mad." The League challenged Henry Ford's circulation of the infamous anti-Semitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in his newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.
ADL circulated pamphlets by Sigmund Livingston on The Protocols -- A Spurious Document and another, The Poison Pen, targeting The Dearborn Independent. The agency called on President Woodrow Wilson and former Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to denounce Ford's anti-Semitism. After years of calumny, Ford publicly apologized to the Jewish people. In a letter to ADL's Sigmund Livingston, he expressed hope that "hatred of the Jews, commonly known as anti-Semitism, and hatred against any other racial or religious groups, shall cease for all times."
Another insidious form of anti-Semitism featured classified ads that clearly discriminated against Jews in employment and housing. Colleges and medical schools had "quotas" limiting the admission of Jews. ADL established facts to influence public opinion against job discrimination and quotas in higher education, and sought legal remedies.
Congress passed laws severely restricting immigration, diminishing the flow of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. ADL learned two very significant lessons in the 1920's: achieving equality needed affirmative techniques as well as defensive efforts, and the welfare of any one minority was intertwined with the welfare of all