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 most wishes to be concealed, and it “JEWISH RIGHTS” TO PUT STUDIES OUT OF SCHOOLS 179 cannot be said that he has made the best use of this privilege.
It is this fixed policy of the B’nai B’rith’s AntiDefamation League which imperils the hope that the B’nai B’rith might have come to the front as one of the most useful influences in the solution of the Jewish Question. It includes a body of men sufficiently ac¬ quainted with the general point of view to be able to see where corrections and concessions are necessary as