Meet the Obama mentor and Soros lawyer heading up the ADL's civil rights

Obama's career of political activism began in some ways when he met Eileen Hershenov. He graduated from Columbia University, and as David Remnick put it, "got it into his head to become a community organizer." After a brief stint working for a living, he answered an ad and joined Ralph Nader's left-wing New York Public Interest Research Group.

His supervisor at the time, Eileen Hershenov, describes having "some really engaged conversations about models of organizing." After a year, Hershenov pleaded with him to stay, "I asked him if it would help if I got on my knees and begged - and so I did,...