Sigmund Livingston

On this date 100 years ago the Pantagraph added a new feature to the paper: NEW LAWS OF ILLINOIS: Abridgement and Comment by Sigmund Livingston. It featured on this date a new law regarding adoption of children when orphaned and the new law regarding the naming of farms. The feature was short lived, and no longer appeared under that name after 1915.

Of course Sigmund Livingston was famous as the founder of the Anti Defamation League. What we might not think of is the fact that he lived in Bloomington when he started the ADL. He practiced law in Bloomington for 30 years and moved to Chicago only in 1929. Events in Bloomington on October 17, 1919 must have gratified Livingston -- the businessmen of Bloomington, Jewish and Gentile, endorsed the Jewish Relief Fund and spoke out in unison with him when he called for donations to that fund.