Hefner

WASHINGTON, DC – In a move that stirred controversy in the organized American Jewish community, the Anti-Defamation League B’nai B’rith presented its 1980 First Amendment Award to Hugh Hefner, publisher of Playboy magazine and mogul of the Playboy empire.

ADL’s rationale in honoring Hefner, whose magazine exploits women as sex objects, featuring them in suggestive and degrading poses, was that “his (Hefner’s) efforts helped maintain, by grants from the Playboy foundation, a number of national organizations dedicated to protecting freedom of speech.”