The American Bar Association is taking steps to combat antisemitism through the creation of a special task force, created by the organization’s president. The Task Force to Combat Antisemitism is co-chaired by local attorney Barbara Mendel Mayden, and San Francisco attorney Mark Schickman. The committee will present a report in August of 2025 outlining its efforts in identifying, educating about, and providing solutions to antisemitism.
“It’s certainly the perception and the fact that antisemitism has always been there. But now it’s out and about and what can we as a profession to help stem this tide,” says Mayden. She says the first step is to raise awareness. “We think of growing up in a golden age where antisemitism, while always beneath the surface, wasn’t as open as it seems to be becoming now and a lot of people don’t realize what a dramatic increase there has been.”
Task Force co-chair Mark Schickman has been involved in both the Jewish community and the Bar community through the years and says the two groups do not often intersect. “Drawing a connection between the two communities is very hard. They each live in their individual areas and it’s really important that they work collaboratively and symbiotically on an issue like this.”
That collaboration is at the heart of the newly formed task force. “One of the many things we’re trying to do is create, strengthen, and maintain the connections between the organized Bar and the organized Jewish community on issues of hate in general and antisemitism in particular.”
Lawyers are no strangers to advocacy, which is after all, at the heart of the profession. And Mayden says now is the time to use those skills on the profession itself. “Where discrimination exists, lawyers have hopefully been there to assist. So part of our work is making them aware and giving them tools to deal with it and to give advice.”
The task force is creating working groups in the areas of: K-12 education; civic and higher education; facilitation of programming within the ABA, within the judiciary and with other bar associations, nationally and internationally; resources for law firms to raise awareness of antisemitism internally and within their communities; monitoring and developing legislation and public policy; outreach to other stakeholders, governmental entities and national organizations providing expert resources and expertise.
“There have been organizations out there fighting this good fight for a long time and we certainly have no illusion of trying to usurp their territory. We’re there to help them,” says Mayden.
Although many attribute the rise in antisemitism to October 7th, Schickman says the ABA began tackling it well before that date. As a delegate of the committee on civil rights and social justice, he was co-author of Resolution 514, adopted in February 2023, condemning antisemitism, and recommending steps to combat it. “It was already an epidemic of the rise of antisemitism eight months before October 7. So, it’s important to recognize the rise of antisemitism as being a very, very, very long-term issue.”
Schickman says the task force is not focused on reaching what he calls “hard core” antisemites, or politicians he says are exploiting that group. The goal is to reach the general public. “Making sure that people are not passive bystanders but are advocates to support victims of antisemitism and to make sure people recognize it as big a problem as other kind of hate.”
One of the biggest challenges says Schickman, is reaching those areas without Jews, which is where lawyers come in. “There are 1.3 million lawyers in America, and we want to mobilize them. In Boise, Idaho and Helena, Montana there might not be any Jews but there’s antisemitism. And they do have lawyers and lawyers need to be a kind of guard against this.”
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What the ABA’s task force is doing is just another link in the chain of lawyers fighting antisemitism. The Anti-Defamation League was founded in 1913 by attorneys. “They are the ones who came up with the mission, which we continue to serve to stop the defamation of Jewish people and to secure fair treatment to all,” says Eytan Davidson, Regional Director of the ADL Southeast region.
Davidson says the ADL continues its involvement and support from the legal community. He cites two of the most famous cases in the Southeast region, the 1986 pardon of Leo Frank in Georgia, and the 2020 passage of the Georgia hate crimes law. The latter came after many years of working with coalitions. “The legal community and the legal profession are very, very important, not just to the lifeblood and founding of the ADL, but to the stability of our society.”
There are other efforts within the legal profession aimed at identifying and combatting antisemitism. In Georgia, Judge Stacey Hydrick, of the Superior Court in DeKalb County, was a founder of the Jewish Bar Association of Georgia. She is currently one of two Jewish Superior Court judges in the state. She says that number is surprising given the vast number of Jewish attorneys in the state. So last summer she joined with another Jewish judge and a Jewish attorney to discuss creating a Bar association to support Jewish legal professionals.
“We started making a list of all the Jewish lawyers that we knew.” After making plans for a first meeting in Hydrick’s home, and creating invitations, fate intervened. “I was working on the invitations on Friday, October 6th. We sent out the invitation and got back 150 RSVPs.” The group hastily pivoted to a room at a local synagogue. “I am convinced that had it not been for October 7th, we would not have had that kind of response. Because I don’t think people recognized the need.”
To date the Georgia Jewish Bar Association has a 250 paid members with a listserv of 300 and many more looking to join. The group serves to support Jewish legal professionals, provide continuing education, networking, and social opportunities. But much like the ABA’s task force, it also is a resource for non-legal community members in need of support. For example, a local Israeli-owned business was the recent target of antisemitic protesting and the Jewish Bar organized counter protests. Another incident involved identifying a local attorney who posted antisemitic rhetoric on his social media platforms.
Hydrick says there cannot be too many groups mobilizing in the fight against antisemitism. “I think everything is necessary. We have to organize and mobilize, and we have to advocate and do anything we can in any way possible.”
The ABA task force is comprised of 14 members and 4 advisors, not a large group. Mayden says it is important that groups like Hydrick’s and others are part of the effort. “We need to give these tools to state and local Bars and other organizations of lawyers, to deputize them to take this message that we can help format.”
Local Jewish leaders agree with the overall goals of these groups, if somewhat dismayed at the need for them. Rabbi Dan Horwitz, CEO of The Jewish Federation of Greater Nashville, says, “While disappointing that it is necessary in 2024, it is humbling to know that the American Bar Association is committed to joining the fight against antisemitism. Their recently passed Resolution 514 is a strong call to stand up for the rights of Jewish people not only in the United States, but globally. We are grateful for their support and stand ready to partner with them at the local level and beyond.”