2025-09-01 5:42 PM <br/> Tags: #people #AmericanJewry ![[image-107.png|260x346]] # Adolf Kraus (1850-1928) - Kraus was an American Jewish Immigrant. - Kraus was a Chicago lawyer and held various city leadership positions. - Chicago Board of Education President. - Advisor to Mayor Carter Harrison. - Corporation Counsel. - In 1905 Kraus led a delegation of influential American Jews to the Russo-Japanese Peace Conference in Portsmouth Maine. - Among Kraus's delegation included financier [[Jacob Schiff]], who had funded the Japanese war effort. - Kraus was president of [[B'nai B'rith]] from 1905-1925. - Kraus founded the [[ADL]] out of [[B'nai B'rith]] in 1913 with [[Sigmund Livingston]]. - In 1916 B'nai B'rith under Kraus elected [[Henry Morgenthau Sr.]] to serve as member at large. - Morgenthau Sr. was the former Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. *Morgenthau Sr.'s ambassadorship made him a key liaison to the burgeoning Jewish settlements in Palestine along with broader Eastern European Jewry.* - Kraus oversaw the formation of [[Hillel International]] in 1924-25. - Hillel was formed under the B'nai B'rith umbrella like the ADL. - Both Hillel and the ADL later separated from B'nai B'rith. - Hillel is the largest Jewish student organization. #### References - _Kraus, Adolf._ _Encyclopedia Judaica_, via Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kraus-adolf. - _B’nai B’rith_. _Wikipedia_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_B%27rith. - _Adolf Kraus_. _Wikipedia_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Kraus. - “B’nai Brith Honors Adolf Kraus, Former President of Order.” _Jewish Telegraphic Agency_. https://www.jta.org/archive/bnai-brith-honors-adolf-kraus-former-president-of-order. - _Anti-Defamation League_. _Wikipedia_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Defamation_League. - _Sigmund Livingston_. _Wikipedia_. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Livingston