Goldensohn Initiative allows ADL to Step Up its Fight Against Anti-Semitism

Date: November 18, 2008

ADL is launching a new initiative against anti-Semitism, funded by a generous bequest that created the Edith and Sidney Goldensohn Fund of the ADL's Fund for the Future.  The donation will help ADL's Southwest Region create a stronger, four-pronged response to anti-Semitism, and will help provide coping skills and resources to victims of anti-Jewish hate.

"Although the reporting of anti-Semitic incidents is lower this year in the United States and in Texas," said ADL Southwest Regional Director Martin B. Cominsky, "one is too many, and there have been many more than that in our region," he added.  "That is why we are so grateful for the leadership of Paul Goldensohn, Sidney Goldenson’s son, in directing these resources toward ADL's fight against anti-Semitism in our community and beyond."

ADL's plan is to educate the general and Jewish community about anti-Semitism and provide coping skills and resources to its victims.  It will include working closely with local Jewish leaders and rabbis to provide ADL's resources to fight anti-Semitism, to create educational tools for law enforcement about the Jewish community, to update and revise its Confronting Anti-Semitism workshop (designed to help students and families recognize anti-Semitism and respond to it,) and to develop a first-ever collaboration with Houston's Jewish Family Service to provide counseling and personal support to victims of anti-Semitism. 

The Goldensohn Initiative also supports ADL's work investigating anti-Semitic incidents and crimes and helping law enforcement bring the perpetrators to justice.  For information on the Goldensohn Initiative, ADL's programs addressing anti-Semitism or how ADL can help people with an anti-Semitic incident or crime, call ADL's Southwest Regional Office at 713-627-3490.