ADL combats bigotry one person at a time through anti-bias training. Starting in preschool and extending through university and into the workplace and community, ADL programs and materials help people confront their own biases and develop respect for "the other."

Our impact spans ethnic and racial barriers and geographic borders. ADL reaches out to governmental, corporate, community, educational and religious leaders and groups in the United States, Israel, Europe, Japan and the former Soviet Union to counter threats to the just and fair treatment of every individual.

ADL AND BARNES & NOBLE 'CLOSE THE BOOK ON HATE'

ADL partnered with the nation's largest bookseller in a countrywide "Close the Book on Hate" campaign. During September 2000, Barnes & Noble's 542 bookstores each devoted a display table to works for children and adults that underscored the value of diversity. The campaign, with former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) as spokesperson, focused on combating racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and all other forms of discrimination.

The new book, Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice, co-authored by ADL Education Director Caryl Stern-LaRosa and Training and Resources Director Ellen Hofheimer Bettmann and published by Scholastic Inc., formed the core of the campaign.

Hate Hurts provides answers to difficult questions posed by young people, helps caregivers in comforting child victims of hate and guides children in dealing with perpetrators of hate.

The bookstores, in conjunction with ADL's Regional Offices, conducted in-store educational programs for parents, children, community leaders and teachers. The authors of Hate Hurts appeared at stores in ten states and the District of Columbia, offering insights on positive communication with children about preventing and/or responding to hatred.

Hate Hurts was also turned into an e-learning course offered by notHarvard.com. Over five hundred people completed the four-lesson course.

ANSWERING HATE ON CAMPUS

For more than a decade, Holocaust deniers have been exploiting college newspapers in their efforts to distort the truth. They have placed paid advertisements and submitted Op-Ed pieces and letters, which have often been printed by inexperienced editors who felt obligated to provide an open forum. Last year, for example, Holocaust denier Bradley Smith placed ads in campus papers, including those of Bucknell and Temple Universities, claiming there was no evidence that Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.

ADL enlisted the help of The New York Times for a joint colloquium to educate campus journalists on journalistic responsibility and ethical standards on issues related to free speech, the tactics of hate groups and ways for combating them. Entitled "Extremism Targets the Campus Press: Balancing Freedom and Responsibility," the gathering was attended by student journalists and administrators from 32 institutions from across the country, including Harvard, Columbia and New York Universities and the University of Pennsylvania. ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman and representatives of The Times ­ publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., columnist Bob Herbert and Director of Advertising and Acceptability Steph Jesperson ­ listened to the positions of campus editors and raised questions about material that contains obvious lies and hate language. They also armed the editors with strategies for balancing freedom of speech with professional standards of journalism.

'FROM SWASTIKA TO JIM CROW': IMPROVING BLACK-JEWISH RELATIONS

To enhance Black-Jewish relations, ADL and the Hillel Foundation launched a new initiative on college campuses in 2000. Student groups screen the new documentary "From Swastika to Jim Crow," about European Jewish refugee scholars who taught at Black colleges in the segregated South, starting in the 1930s. ADL assembles panels to discuss issues raised by the film and helps develop action plans to improve relations and develop collaboration between Black and Jewish students. The documentary was scheduled to run on PBS in 2001.

CAMPUS EDITORS' TRIP

Twenty-one campus newspaper editors went to Poland and Israel on the Albert Finkelstein Memorial Study Mission. Representing Columbia, Cornell, Syracuse, Brown and Stanford Universities, the editors visited Auschwitz and the former Warsaw and Krakow ghettos. In Israel, they met with political leaders, local students and American journalists. The mission ­ which is designed to impart an understanding of the Holocaust, the events that led to the establishment of Israel, and other issues relating to the Jewish State ­ is sponsored in memory of her late husband, Albert. Finkelstein, 

BESS MYERSON AWARDS

Student journalists again competed for the annual ADL/Bess Myerson Campus Journalism Awards. Ms. Myerson, who was a target of anti-Semitism as the first Jewish Miss America in 1945, endowed the awards to recognize student journalists whose reporting encourages intergroup dialogue, tolerance and understanding on campus.

ADL'S A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE^® INSTITUTE

Long the cornerstone of ADL's anti-bias training, the A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE^® Institute last year continued to expand its reach. ADL has taught more than 360,000 elementary and secondary school teachers anti-bias techniques. They, in turn, relayed the message to more than 15 million students. The Institute's A CAMPUS OF DIFFERENCE^™ program provided anti-bias training at more than 135 universities and colleges and materials to hundreds of other institutions of higher learning. The Institute's A WORKPLACE OF DIFFERENCE^™ program reached more than 135,000 people in government and private industry. The Institute's programs have already been exported to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands, Israel, Japan and the former Soviet Union.

STARTING YOUNG

Research shows that infants as young as eight months can already detect differences in people. Therefore, ADL is working to channel that ability to differentiate into positive directions. Innovative programs are helping preschool educators teach two- to four-year-olds to appreciate diversity before they are old enough to learn to hate.

ADL's Miller Early Childhood Initiative is developing new anti-bias training and curriculum resources, including workbooks for parents and teachers, a study and activity guide and a training video produced especially for three- to five-year-olds. Over the next three years, the Miller Initiative will be implemented in Chicago, Detroit and Greater New York/Long Island.

ADL also has a two-year pilot called the Preschool Anti-Bias Initiative funded by the Pritzker Cousins Foundation. It is providing 800 teachers in the Chicago, Miami, Long Island, Orange County and Seattle areas with stimulating age-appropriate resources and activities kits designed to turn a preschool into a community that appreciates diversity.

In addition, the Institute completed its third year of anti-bias training for 3,000 youths and youth service professionals from 400 Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). The lessons learned from the BGCA program have inspired the creation of a Peer Leadership Program, now being offered to schools and youth organizations across the country. It prepares young people to become leaders and role models in the fight against prejudice in their schools and communities.

STUDENTS NATIONWIDE LEARN LESSONS OF THE HOLOCAUST

Now in its third year, ADL's National Youth Leadership Mission drew more than 100 students from nine cities. They visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn the lessons of the Holocaust and their applications to today's issues of bigotry and discrimination. They were addressed by civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Holocaust survivors including ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman, and Jan Karski, the Polish underground fighter who warned President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the imminent genocide in Europe, in one of his last public appearances before his death.

Back home ­ in Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, Orange County and San Diego ­ the students are working with ADL staff to become agents for positive change in their schools and communities.

Since the program's inception, travel to and from Washington for the hundreds of student delegates and adult chaperones has been generously provided by USAirways.

WHERE CITIZENSHIP AND TORAH STUDY MEET

ADL worked with the Orthodox Caucus in New York City last year to develop special programs for religious Jewish students.

The program, entitled "How Being a Better Citizen Makes You a Better Jew," was initiated at the Manhattan Talmudic Academy. Following a successful first year, the program has been expanded for the 2000-2001 school year and is now being offered at yeshivas on Long Island and in Toronto.

The two issues now being addressed are drug and alcohol abuse and the impact of virtuous behavior on the world's perception of religious Jews.

EXPORTING UNDERSTANDING

Austria and Japan were among the foreign destinations reached by A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE^® Institute anti-bias training. Teachers, community leaders, volunteers and human rights activists in a number of countries participated in Institute lectures, workshops and training sessions.

Two ADL training specialists visited Japan, as part of ongoing collaboration between ADL and Japanese human rights groups in the development of a diversity network that will address all forms of bias and discrimination.

In Austria, ADL is focusing on countering extremism. ADL brought eight Austrian trainers to the United States for a five-day Train-the-Trainer program held in Chicago. During the visit, long-term plans for introducing A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE^® Institute training into Austrian schools were also discussed.

MORAL LESSONS ­ FROM JAPAN TO BOSTON

To encourage students to reflect on issues of moral courage, ADL sponsored a number of competitions, one of which was the Sugihara "Do the Right Thing" Essay Contest. Public high school students in New York City, Boston and San Francisco wrote essays about moral or ethical choices they made and how they affected others.

The contest is a tribute to Chiune Sugihara, the World War II Japanese Ambassador to Lithuania, who defied his government's orders and issued visas that ensured the safe passage and survival of thousands of European Jews.

Some of the award winners traveled to Japan, where they spoke at the Centennial Celebration Ceremony to honor Chiune Sugihara. The Braun Holocaust Institute is coordinating the program, and All Nippon Airways is among the sponsors.

OTHER INITIATIVES

Over the past year, ADL has launched a number of groundbreaking educational initiatives and has earned recognition for some of its ongoing anti-bias programs.

* The Bearing Witness program on the Holocaust was offered to Catholic and Jewish educators across the United States. It was recognized by the National Catholic Educators Association as a Selected Program for Improving Catholic Education.

* The CHILDREN OF THE DREAM^® program for improving relations between African-American and Jewish high school students was selected by the YWCA of Greater Los Angeles as a "best practice" in effectively addressing issues of race and diversity.

* 35 ADL staffers participated in Combating Homophobia, a two-day training program designed for the Jewish community. It is now being offered to other groups. 

PALM BEACH COUNTY

As the new year dawned, the A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE^® Institute embarked on a new program to provide anti-bias and diversity training to schools, parents and community leaders in Palm Beach County, Florida. Underwritten by a one-million-dollar, three-year grant from the Quantum Foundation ­ a philanthropic agency that specializes in behavioral issues ­ the effort is in partnership with the Children's Behavioral Health Initiative, which works to promote healthy behaviors in children and teens. 

STEINBERG LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

At the 22nd Annual National Leadership Conference in Washington, DC, sports agent and author Leigh Steinberg announced the expansion of the Steinberg Leadership Institute, which engages future ADL leaders in a yearlong series of training workshops and sessions to enhance their familiarity with ADL's agenda, from nine to 20 regions. The Institute, through its programs, is helping to ensure the growth of ADL in the years to come. Mr. Steinberg, center, is seen here with a group of last year's participants. 

CONNECTICUT

After a high school in Milford, CT, was the site of anti-Semitic and racist graffiti, ADL introduced its "Names Can Really Hurt Us" program ­ which trains student leaders to work with their peers on diversity issues ­ to the school.

OMAHA

More than 300 students from 25 Omaha metro area high schools participated in ADL's Plains States Regional Office's 14th Annual Prejudice Elimination Workshop, involving business, civic and educational associations.

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