Rudolph Friedmann LLP
Boston, Massachusetts
At Rudolph Friedmann LLP in Boston, Jim and Bobby Rudolph don’t just help businesses and individuals resolve complex legal issues, they use the skills they have honed as lawyers to devote their time and energy to a cause they are passionate about – the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, ADL was originally started to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate, deliver anti-bias education and fight domestic extremism, both online and off. ADL’s ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.
The ADL has been deeply involved in many of the most prominent issues facing the U.S over the past century, including most recently the attack on the U.S. Capitol for which it has now announced the PROTECT plan to fight domestic terrorism. Other important issues include persuading businesses to pause their ad spending on Facebook in the 2020 Stop Hate for Profit campaign, which targeted online hate on Facebook. As a result, more than 1,000 businesses paused their Facebook ad buys for a month. In September 2020, the campaign organized high-profile athletes, actors and musicians to post Stop Hate for Profit messages targeting Facebook on their social media and to freeze all posts on Instagram for a day.
ADL has also had a major impact on developing programs to combat school bullying. Its comprehensive anti-bullying and anti-cyberbullying initiative, A World of Difference® Institute, features school-wide programs and interactive workshops for students, educators and administrators.
The ADL is also the largest non-governmental organization for training of U.S. law enforcement to combat extremism, terrorism and hate crimes. The ADL works with every major federal, state and local law enforcement agency, from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to major city police departments, state police, highway patrol and sheriffs’ departments and has trained over 150,000 law enforcement personnel over the past decade. The ADL also partners with FBI field offices, sharing information learned from the monitoring of the extremist groups it tracks. In early 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, ADL's Center on Extremism began tracking and publishing reports of upsurges in extremist hate and violence targeting Asian-Americans, Chinese, Jews and immigrants.
Jim’s involvement with ADL began in 1985 when racist graffiti was discovered on his Temple in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He was town Selectman at the time, and he helped organize an ADL Advisory Committee representing several local cities and towns that focused on engaging educators and the law enforcement community to help fight bigotry and hate on the North Shore. In 1990, he received the ADL Chairman’s Award for his local leadership and for founding the ADL North Shore Advisory Committee. In 1996, he received ADL’s Community Leadership Award.
Jim has been a member of ADL’s National Executive Committee since 2005 and served as Chair of the ADL New England Regional Board from 2006 to 2008, which at the time had over 100 Board members. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Overseers, a position he has held since 2008. Jim says “at one time or another, most lawyers want to be a civil rights lawyer and we know that’s impossible. ADL has always been an organization that I can relate to both personally and professionally.”
Through his work with the ADL, Jim has recognized the importance of educating politicians and law enforcement officials on the issues important to ADL. To that end, he has traveled to Israel numerous times with these groups. “I devote my knowledge and efforts to ADL because the organization is committed to combating hate in all of its forms and is very effective at developing initiatives, especially for students, that have made significant progress in the fight against bias and discrimination.”
Bobby’s involvement with the ADL dates to high school where he served as an ADL Peer Trainer and as an intern at the ADL’s Boston office. After graduating from the ADL’s Glass Leadership Institute in 2013, Bobby joined the ADL’s Associate Board, which he later co-chaired. In 2014, he traveled to Germany to represent the ADL in its partnership with the German government’s Germany Close-Up program, an initiative designed to encourage German-Jewish-North American dialogue and to strengthen transatlantic relations. He has served on a number of the Associate Board’s working committees and co-chaired the ADL’s Young Leadership’s main fundraising event twice. In 2015, the ADL selected Bobby for the Krupp Leadership Award for his outstanding leadership and dedication to the organization.
Bobby was asked to join the ADL New England Regional Board in 2018 and went on to serve as a member of the Regional Board’s Nominating Committee. At the time, he was the youngest member of the Regional Board. In 2020, he received the Daniel R. Ginsberg National Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding young professionals for their leadership in the fight against anti-Semitism, racism and all forms of hate. He currently serves on the Regional Board’s Law Enforcement Committee, a mix of lay leaders and high-ranking law enforcement officials who work collaboratively together to conduct trainings and community events designed to further the common goal of creating a world without hate.
Bobby’s work with the ADL has focused on the growth and engagement of ADL’s young leadership to help ensure the longevity of the ADL and its programs long into the future. Although he grew up in a family that supported the ADL, as an ADL peer trainer in high school and intern at the ADL’s Boston office, Bobby saw first-hand the ADL’s intent and ability to support victims of hate and to bring communities together during times of unrest. He says that he truly believes in the ADL’s Peer Trainer Pledge that “one person can make a difference and that no person can be an innocent bystander when it comes to opposing hate,” and that is why he chooses to support the ADL.
Through the work of Jim and Bobby and countless others, the ADL is working tirelessly to meet its ultimate goal – a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.