Renee Rappaport was a Jewish student in the School of Dental Hygiene who matriculated in 1938 but soon was asked by its head, Iona Jackson, to consider leaving because Jews were unemployable. When she agreed to leave the program just a few months into the academic year of 1939–1940, she was required to give as her reason that she was unable to do the school work. She provided this testimony to attorney Sam Scheiner who led the Anti-Defamation Council of Minnesota, founded in 1938, to combat antisemitism in Minnesota. The organization later became the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. They organized to combat antisemitism in employment, housing, the distribution of hate literature, and politics.