| Above:
Seated (left to right): Julie Winter; Jane Wasserman, Chair,
Meyer Kransberg Memorial Scholarship Committee; Adinah Raskas
Back Row
(left to right): Karen Aroesty, Regional Director; Howard Loiterstein,
Chair, Regional Advisory Board; Sima Needleman
Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith
Fighting hate through education, collaboration and advocacy
By Pam Droog
As a Jew, Howard Loiterstein was aware of hate and prejudice.
Fortunately he had never experienced them firsthand. But when
anti-semitic graffiti appeared on his brother’s Creve Coeur house
in 1991, the Prudential Securities financial adviser felt, somebody’s
got to do something. “But who? I guess I will,” Loiterstein said
at the time. “And I called the Anti-Defamation League.”
Now board chairman of the ADL’s eastern Missouri and southern
Illinois region, one of the ADL’s 26 offices, Loiterstein has
seen the organization’s stature grow in just a few years.
“Louis Farrakhan indirectly helped our cause,” he says, referring
to the controversial organizer of the 1995 Million Man March.
“The ADL ran a full-page ad in the New York Times that awoke America
to what he was up to. Afterward he became an outcast.”
At the same time, through the work of the ADL’s previous regional
executive director, David Waren, other community organizations
began to turn to the ADL. “If there were problems like prejudice
in the Hispanic or Asian-American community and they had no one
to help, they’d be referred to us,” Loiterstein explains. “As
a defense-type organization we stand for things other groups may
be afraid to address, and we are not.”
As the group’s reputation grew, so did the strength and size of
its board. It’s a large board—64 members—from a large region—all
of Missouri except Kansas City plus the southern half of Illinois.
“We’re a non-member organization, so we rely on the board to get
the work done,” Loiterstein says.
The board includes rabbis representing reform, conservative and
orthodox Judaism, as well as professors, attorneys, entrepreneurs,
retirees, civic volunteers, students and others. “The three Ws,
wisdom, wealth or work, that’s how we value a board member,” Regional
Director Karen Aroesty, says. “Some can’t give a lot of money
but they have good contacts or are willing to work. Others support
us with substantial contributions. But each board member is valued
the same.”
The ADL board meets every other month. Members serve on four committees:
civil rights, marketing, development/ planned giving and executive.
“The charter says terms are a certain length, but we haven’t stuck
by that,” Aroesty says. “People tend to not want to go away because
the issues don’t go away.”
Currently, the ADL board is focused on the issues of hate crimes
and diversity. It collaborates with the U.S. Attorneys Hate Crimes
Task Force to offer hate-crime education for law enforcement and
the community and to advocate for victims of hate crimes and bias
incidents. “We work to respond quickly when hate activity occurs,
to send a message that this community will not tolerate that kind
of behavior,” Aroesty says. “We have our work cut out for us given
the significant level of extremist activity occurring in Missouri
now.”
The group also is a member of the Diversity Awareness Partnership,
founded by St. Louis 2004. The ADL is preparing programming with
other groups including Focus St. Louis, the National Conference
of Community and Justice, and Cooperating School Districts.
In addition, the ADL lobbies for hate-crime, civil rights and
religious-freedom legislation in Jefferson City and provides speakers
for various groups. It also passes local resolutions regarding
major issues, such as the Boy Scouts of America’s stand on homosexuality.
“I never know what my board will do,” Aroesty says. “They’re from
a very broad range of political and religious views. This always
makes for wonderful discussion and fascinating board meetings.”
The ADL probably is best known for its acclaimed World of Difference
Institute, which offers anti-bias curricula for schools, workplaces,
government and law enforcement agencies. In St. Louis, The Danforth
Foundation provided the seed money in 1989 to fund the program,
which the ADL now oversees. Since the early 1990s, the Institute
has worked with thousands of organizations, and trained more than
1,100 people last year.
“Education is the way to go, especially with children,” Aroesty
says. “If they understand early that being different isn’t bad,
they’ll come to understand tolerance and celebrate diversity.
Then you can wage the battle a lot more effectively.”
Fees for World of Difference training help the ADL meet its annual
operating budget of $400,000, which supports a staff of six. The
organization also holds two major fundraisers. The World of Difference
Institute presents a yearly banquet to honor the recipient of
its Workplace Diversity Award, which in 2001 was Southwestern
Bell. The ADL recently held its annual gala at The Pageant, where
David Steward and World Wide Technology received the ADL’s Distinguished
Community Service Award.
“We start from scratch every year, but every year we raise more
money than the year before,” Loiterstein says. “I hope it’s because
people realize it would be a real detriment to the community not
to have this organization here. After all, if someone draws graffiti
on your driveway, or the boss won’t let you take off for a religious
holiday, who will YOU call?”
Pam Droog is a St. Louis-based free-lance writer.
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