The Anti-Defamation League Texoma Regional Office honored Dorsey partner Mike Gruber with the 2019 Larry Schoenbrun Jurisprudence Award at its annual luncheon in Dallas last week.
The Jurisprudence Award is given to “an attorney with a long-standing record of contributions to the legal profession, and who epitomizes ADL’s mission of securing justice and fair treatment for all.”
Dallas lawyer Jeff Levinger, when introducing Gruber, described his friend as tenacious, optimistic and polite and self-deprecating, authentic and humble.
“Mike has the values and the qualities that epitomize what the Anti-Defamation League stands for and strives for. The ADL – indeed, our country – needs more leaders like Mike Gruber. And in relation to Mike, I use the term ‘leader’ in the same sense that Abraham Lincoln contemplated – someone who does not seek greatness in times that don’t require it,” Levinger said.
Standing L-R: Jeff Chapman, Rob Walters, Steve Stodghill, Yvette Ostolaza, Carol Glendenning, Richard Massman, Don Glendenning
Seated L-R: Larry Schoenbrun, Mike Gruber, Gil Friedlander
Photo credit: Amanda Harris of Amanda Lynn Photography
The Texas Lawbook has published Gruber’s acceptance speech in full below:
I thank the ADL for the honor of this award. I want to give special recognition to Kerri Aiken and Cheryl Drazin for all their help and the example they set. Thanks to each of you for being here and helping me celebrate the work of the Anti-Defamation League. I am especially grateful for our very, very generous sponsors.
I have looked at those who have won the award, including the original Larry Schoenbrun Jurisprudence Award honoree: Larry Schoenbrun. There are so many people on the list that I admire. I used the list of past honorees and my understanding of the ADL’s goals and mission to choose those that I wanted to be my honorary chairs and speak for me today: Mayor Rawlings, Sen. West, Kristie Foster; Kevin Dahlberg; Alan Dorantes; Jeff Levinger and my wife Diane. There was a common thread, to the ADLs work, and the lives of prior honorees and these individuals: It wasn’t just how much they had accomplished for others, it was how they went about their work, and the lack of collateral damage in attaining their goals. They didn’t have to destroy their opponent’s in order to win a public debate, private argument, or legal contest. They don’t consider those engaging with them in public discourse as being their enemy. They do not believe their ideas are entitled to prevail because their opponents are less worthy or inferior in some way.
Each were born with great hearts and have strived to keep them free of judgment and bias. If the world followed their example, there would be no need for next year’s ADL luncheon.
But, we will need the ADL next year, and for many-many years to come. And we may never need the Anti-Defamation League more than we need it right now. I want to use my remaining few minutes to plead with you to support the ADL and its mission with your actions and your pocketbooks.
Possibly the most critical problem we face is the horrific state of public discourse. The reason it may be our most critical problem is that it precludes us from addressing and solving any other problems. When public debate degenerates into name calling, libel and slander, half-truths: Outright lies that appeal to our basest emotions and worst instincts, nothing can be accomplished. That certainly appears to be the status of our national politics.
Progress is made, and problem-solving occurs, by the free exchange of ideas in the public arena. Much like a trial the truth, the right answer, usually wins out. That is why no one dislikes personal attacks and appeals to bias and prejudice more than a trial judge. The search for justice is spoiled by these tactics. In the public arena, the search for solutions to our problems is also ruined by these practices.
Listen to a political debate, or an intellectual debate on a college campus, if one can even be scheduled. Look at any Internet forum: anything past the 10th comment made could have just as easily originated on a kindergarten playground. Take this to the extreme: Imagine a loosely anchored individual, only participating in interactions and forums that reinforce views that certain people are unworthy, less than human, and whose very existence is a threat to all he believes in.
You have the congregations of synagogues, mosques and churches becoming literal targets just for the fact that they are Jews, Muslims and Christians. In recent years there was an attempted murder of a congresswoman simply because she was a Democrat: the same occurred to a group of Republican House members practicing softball. The assailants in a series of attacks on churches made it clear their motivations were not based on religion but because the congregations were black. It is very difficult to argue any longer, that hate speech, over time and in sufficient volume and intensity, doesn’t lead to hate action.
Sadly the ADL is all too aware of this crisis: From the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting to attacks against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country, the U.S. Jewish community experienced near-historic levels of anti-Semitism in 2018. It was a year marked by the shooting spree at a Pittsburgh synagogue, which claimed 11 lives. In 2018, the ADL recorded 1,879 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. This trend continued into 2019 with the tragic shooting at the Chabad synagogue in Poway.
I ask for your support of the ADL because it is literally the first-line of defense against hate and its epidemic trend to go from hate speech to hate action with unprecedented speed. The ADL understands and we need to understand the following: Hate speech, and the political quagmire and the violence it spawns, are born of ignorance and the primary cure is education. Abraham Lincoln once said: “I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.” His biographers have made it clear that even Abraham Lincoln should have gotten to know certain groups of people a lot better.
The columnist David Brooks said: “You detoxify disputes when you personalize them. People who don’t have regular contact with people they disagree with become intellectually dishonest quickly.” That is hate speech and the action it spawns are directly proportional to the unfamiliarity and lack of personal contact with the victims of such attacks. In fact many instances of hate speech and hate crime are committed by people who have never carried out a conversation with or even met their victims. ADL has a comprehensive approach to addressing anti-Semitic incidents and behavior: It provides education and training every day to students, reaching young people at a time when they are most vulnerable to bullying and social pressures. ADL’s “No Place for Hate”, an anti-bullying program, and “Words to Action” programs teach understanding and promote inclusivity in schools and on campuses, respectively. The ADL works with law enforcement to apprehend the perpetrators of hate crimes, raise awareness of extremist threats and to recognize and disrupt potential threats.
The ADL’s work benefits all of us. The ADL’s work goes far past fighting anti-Semitic hate speech. They understand that hate speech against any group is dangerous to every other group. In our discussions about the ADLs goals Cheryl shared with me the following words from a Lutheran minister during the Holocaust: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The ADL promotes religious freedom through its Interfaith & Intergroup Relations program. The ADL works with the Catholic Church through its “Bearing Witness” Holocaust education program. The ADL’s Interfaith Coalition on Mosques works to ensure religious freedom for America’s Muslim communities.
No group was quicker to denounce or stronger in its condemnation of this year’s horrific attack on the New Zealand mosque: I quote Jonathan Goldblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. “We are devastated by the loss of life in Christchurch and mourn this tragedy with Muslims around the world. No one should be targeted for their faith or their immigrant status, and it is unconscionable that the shooter singled out Muslims during their hours of prayer. We stand in solidarity with Muslims around the world and unequivocally condemn Islamophobia.”
That is the anti-defamation league walking the walk.
Lastly the ADLs goal is not to inhibit or restrict free speech, it is a champion of free speech and only seeks to preserve it. In the ADLs own words: “ADL passionately defends free speech in America. We recognize that the First Amendment protects even hateful or offensive speech, and we believe that the best answer to hate speech is not censorship, but more speech.” More than anything the ADL seeks honesty in speech, it seeks facts not slander, it seeks reason, and not an appeal to raw emotion, and it seeks thought as opposed to visceral reaction based on appeals to our very worst instincts.
This is why I ask you for several things before you leave today: Come back to next year’s luncheon, even though I’m almost sure I won’t be the honoree; Learn everything you can about the ADL and its mission; be changed by what you learn: act accordingly. Before you leave today make a contribution to the ADL, and make it a habit to contribute to the ADL in the future. It is a sound investment, in a worthy organization, with a critical mission that has never been more relevant. Conveniently, there are contribution envelopes on the table and volunteers at the door to collect those envelopes.
Once again thank you for being here being here and for your support of the Anti-Defamation League.