body and does not always depend upon “the rule of reason” in its activities.
Many quaint tales could be told of the operations of the Anti-Defamation League in various American cities, but as the present articles attempt to give no more than a bird’s-eye view of widespread Jewish activities, mere story-telling will have to wait.
But perhaps the most notable accomplishment of the league has been the suppression of the word “Jew” in the public prints in any but the most laudatory connections. For a long time in the United States the people did not know how to refer to the Jews, whether as Hebrews or Israelites or what, because the fear of giving offense had been so diligently cultivated in all quarters.
The result was that other nationalities were laden with all the undesirable publicity which the Jews had evaded through the efforts of the Anti-Defamation League. Recently a Jew was on trial for the murder of his wife. The newspapers referred to him as “a pert little Englishman.” The Russians in the United States, and the Poles also, have been filled with indignation by the extent to which their national names have been used in police and newspaper reports to conceal the identity of Jews. The Russians resident in this country have several times been compelled to remonstrate with the press for its misrepresentative practice in this matter.
For this state of affairs, the Anti-Defamation League receives the credit. Whenever a newspaper printed the word “Jew” as an identifying noun after the name of anyone who had been discredited, the Anti-Defamation League was instantly on the job in protest. The stock argument is, “If he had been a Baptist or an Episcopalian you would not have told it, and why should you say that he is a Jew—‘Jew’ being a mere religious denomination.” City editors are obliging and the rule became established. In principle it is right, although it is urged on wrong grounds; but in practice it has turned out to be a great injustice to other nationalities and, more than all, it has curtailed the freedom of American speech. It has concealed the Jew where he wishes to be concealed, and it
