ADL
Info Helped HUAC in 1947
Witch-Hunts 
ADL National Director Abraham H Foxman
(right)
REPORTS THAT the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
furnished information on individuals and
organizations to government agencies are
not new. At press time, the MELB learned that in
1947, Congressional hearings revealed that
the self-styled "civil rights"
organization had been furnishing
information to the U.S. Civil Service
Commission on persons either alleged to be
"communist," or linked, even indirectly,
to some one who was. This information, was
in turn, used by the House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC) and the
FBI. The investigation was conducted by a
House Subcommittee on the Expenditures of
the Executive Department on October 3, 6
and 7, 1947. Its purpose was "to make
inquiry as to the authority of the Civil
Service Commission to expend federal funds
to compile an ' investigators' leads file
containing facts, rumor, and gossip
bearing upon the views, opinions, and acts
of individuals who were neither federal
employees nor applicants for positions
coming under the jurisdiction of the Civil
Service Commission. Also to learn for what
purpose the "file" was to be used." What the
Subcommittee learned, clearly to its
disgust as a reading of the hearings
make clear, was that the
Anti-Defamation League was major source
of information which Subcommittee Chair
Clare Hoffman declared to be
"all hearsay." As an example, Hoffman held up a card,
referring to the National Lawyers Guild,
February 20-22, 1937,* which stated that
it came "from the subversive files in the
office of Attorneys Mintzer &
Levy, 39 Broadway, room 3305, and the
files were made up in cooperation with the
American Jewish Committee and the Anti-
Defamation League" (P. 17). According to
the Commission President Harry B.
Mitchell, the files contained "the
names of persons connected with some
person who may be disloyal, subversive in
some way. And we have the names of a great
many who registered as Communists, who
filed a petition, a nominating petition as
a member of the Communist Party" (P. 10).
It also apparently, included the names of
some Senators and Congressmen (sic). "You must remember," Mitchell later
acknowledged, "that there is no evidence
against the names on the list." "No,"
responded Hoffman, "but it furnishes a
most admirable smear list." (P. 17)
Subcommittee member, Fred Busbey of
Illinois, asked Commissioner Arthur
Flemming how he could "reconcile your
statement before this committee
[regarding its activities] with
the order put out by the Civil Service
Commission on November 3, 1943,
prohibiting your investigators from even
asking questions about various
Communist-front organizations, whether the
man read the Daily Worker, or whether he
was a member of the Washington Bookshop,
or the American League for Peace and
Democracy, or other organizations of that
type?" Flemming replied that "the Commission
became convinced" that the technique being
used by some of the investigators, instead
of "helping us achieve our objectives, was
deliberately playing into the hands of the
persons against whom the investigations
were being conducted. That type of
information could be more effectively
developed in other ways without playing
into [their] hands."(P. 21) Busbey, noting the "numerous cards" in
the Commission's files that came from the
ADL, asked Flemming to explain the
relationship that existed between anyone
on his staff and the ADL, and another
organization, the Friends of Democracy,
whose name was linked to it on the
cards. - Mr. Busbey: "Do you have any
knowledge as to who in your
organization contacts the
Anti-Defamation League and checks their
files, and how often they go to their
offices and check their files for leads
for your files?"
- Mr. Flemming: "I do not know, and I
do not have such information."
Busbey, obviously frustrated when this
line of questioning produced no results,
urged the committee to "subpena before it
the executive head" of the Anti-Defamation
League, and that they have Mintzer &
Levy, "subpoenaed, to ascertain what they
had to do with getting that kind of
information into this file." (P. 36) The
"advisability" of doing so was immediately
questioned by Subcommittee assistant,
Porter Hardy, the chair agreed and
it went no further. The Commissioner was adamant in his
refusal to let the Subcommittee review the
files, despite acknowledging that
investigators from other committees, such
as HUAC, and the FBI had been given
access. In a letter to Hoffman, dated
December 19, 1947, Commission President
Mitchell reported that of the 487,033
cards (on individuals) in its New York
City office, "6,000 or 7,000 cards"
[had been] compiled, to some
degree, "in cooperation with the
Anti-Defamation League." (P.63) It should be noted that 1947 was the
year in which ten Hollywood writers,
producers and directors, who came to be
known as the "Hollywood Ten,"were called
before HUAC and asked whether or not they
were "now or had ever been" members of the
Communist Party. All refused to answer,
claiming that their First Amendment rights
protected them from such an inquiry. They
were judged to be in contempt of Congress
and sentenced to a year in federal prison.
The House Un-American Activities
Committee, at the time, with whom the ADL
made common bond, was largely made up of
Southern racist "Dixicrats" and
ultra-right wing Northern Republicans. *This was
during the infancy of the first HUAC,
which came to be known by the name of
its notorious right-wing chair,
Martin Dies, as the Dies
Committee.
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