Often, when people look at ADL, they see our official face. They read our public statements, Op-Ed pieces, full-page newspaper ads. They see us in the national and international arena, our message respected and taken into account in the decisions of presidents, prime ministers and elected leaders. They know us as a crusading voice against anti-Semitism

We constantly strive to look past the surface in our work.

in all its manifestations, from the crudest graffiti to the most sophisticated uses of the World Wide Web.

All of this is true ­ yet incomplete. We look at anti-Semitism as part of a larger social problem: bigotry, discrimination, and violence against individuals and groups, both Jews and non-Jews. Much of our work takes place behind the scenes and away from the media spotlight, through long-range programs ­ in partnership with government

Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents showed a decline in anti-Jewish activity for the third year in a row in 1997.

officials, community leaders, schools, businesses and other agencies ­ that fight bigotry by changing laws, policies and above all, attitudes. And for all the important work of our National Office, the contributions of our 30 Regional and Satellite Offices across the U.S. and abroad, each one a microcosm of ADL at the grass-roots level, are equally vital.

By the same token, we constantly strive to look past the surface in our work. This means distinguishing between insensitivity and deliberate insults, between ignorance and calculated campaigns of hate. It means determining exactly what is and is not anti-Semitism through careful research, fact finding and analysis. It means adopting different strategies for different situations. And it means seeing the complexity of many issues ­ especially the question of how to fight bigotry while respecting the First Amendment's guarantees of free speech.