As ADL New Mexico rejoins the Mountain States Region, we spoke with Jeff Baker, Chair of the New Mexico Anti-Defamation League Board.
How did you first become involved in ADL? How are you involved now?
Twenty-seven years ago, then ADL Mountain States Regional Director Saul Rosenthal helped launch New Mexico as an independent ADL office. I became an inaugural board member when I was asked by a friend who declined Saul’s invitation, and told Saul he would find someone. Over the years, I have been statewide chair three times.
What do you do in your professional life?
I am the managing partner of a small law firm which defends government agencies in employment and civil rights cases, and we sue lawyers. Representing government pays the bills. Suing lawyers feeds the soul.
When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A lawyer. Between watching Perry Mason and reading Louis Nizer’s “My Life in Court,” I was hooked.
Where were you born? From where do your ancestors hail?
I was born in Brookline, MA (my parents told me I was born in Fenway Park). My four grandparents all emigrated as teenagers from the area my friends and I refer to as “Roland” (sometimes Russia, sometimes Poland!).
What’s your favorite holiday?
Passover – good friends, good food, and a good story.
What’s your favorite food?
Corned beef hash with an egg over easy, and an everything bagel.
What are you reading?
Selected Stories 1968-1994 by Alice Munro. I grew up outside of Buffalo, and Canada was an early cultural influence.
What’s a special place you have visited?
Egypt (our son was studying at the American University in Cairo). It is a fascinating country, where high rise buildings often leave the top floor unfinished (because once completed the building is added to the tax rolls), and where traffic lanes are only a suggestion. Dogs are scarce, but cats are everywhere (our son said cats were revered by the Pharaohs, plus he said the Prophet liked cats).
What’s one thing every person should know or experience?
Unconditional love.
What teacher or class stands out to you the most in your education and why?
Miss Kamm – 6th grade. She would not accept “good enough.”
What are you passionate about personally? What can’t you stop talking about?
Politics and baseball.
Where can we find you when you’re not working?
In front of a computer or iPad reading newspapers, and making notes for the book I will never write.
What would be impossible for you to give up?
Espresso. On my bucket list is an espresso tour of Italy – I have been told that as you travel south, the coffee becomes stronger, until you reach Sicily, where a teaspoonful is rich enough to keep you going all day.
If you had to teach something, what would you teach?
Ethics for lawyers (it is not supposed to be an oxymoron).
Tell me a story that immediately pops into your mind that was a defining or significant moment for you.
That will have to wait for a glass of single malt, a leather armchair, a fire in a fireplace, and a sleeping dog.
Why do you choose to make a financial investment in ADL?
Martin Niemoller’s poem (“First they came for the Socialists, …”) summarizes my political thinking. Standing on the sidelines is not an option.
Complete this sentence: For me, the ADL is …
… one of three pre-eminent American civil rights organizations (along with the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center).