One of the other cousins whose name always stays with me is my third cousin, twice removed, Sigmund Livingston, the founder of the Anti-Defamation League, as I wrote about here as well as about his earlier years and his family here , here , here, here, and here. Sigmund was related to me through our mutual ancestors Abraham and Geitel Katz Blumenfeld, as shown on this chart. Sigmund ended up going to law school and practicing law in Bloomington. He married Hilda Freiler in , and they had one child, Richard, born in The family later moved to Chicago where Sigmund continued to practice law.
After experiencing anti-Semitic stereotypes and slurs during a vaudeville show in the early s, Sigmund decided to do something to fight back against anti-Semitism. He founded an organization in Bloomington that eventually grew to become known as the Anti-Defamation League, an international organization that still exists today, fighting against all forms of discrimination, including but not only anti-Semitism.
When I learned that I was related, albeit very distantly, to the founder of the ADL, I felt incredibly proud to have that connection. Today the ADL continues to be at the forefront of those fighting against hatred and prejudice. Richard and Laurie have also given me some additional new cousins on the Blumenfeld side of our family tree to contact, which I plan to do in the near future.
But I was most excited to see additional photographs of Sigmund and his family and to learn a little more about his life and the life of his family. Sigmund Livingston, Courtesy of the family.
Finally, this photograph shows the family in about Dora Meyer had passed away in and her children and their spouses:. Front Row left to right : Helen Cubby Baer? Courtesy of the family. When Sigmund left Bloomington in , he gave his share in his local law practice to a young cousin, Herb Livingston; and joined a major Chicago law practice with his brother-in-law Charles Lederer. The firm was known as Lederer, Livingston, Kahn, and Adler or similar until approx.
