Anti-Defamation League

Anti-Defamation League

Logo of the Anti-Defamation League
Motto To stop the defamation of the Jewish people…to secure justice and fair treatment to all.
Formation 1913
Type Civil rights law
Headquarters New York, NY
Director Abraham Foxman
Key people Glen Lewy — Chairman
Website www.adl.org/

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is an interest group founded in 1913 by B'nai B'rith in the United States whose stated aim is "to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens."[1]

With an annual budget of over $50 million,[2] the ADL has 29 offices in the United States and three offices in other countries, with its headquarters located in New York City. Since 1987, Abraham Foxman has been the national director in the United States. The national chairman in the United States is Glen Lewy.

Contents

Origin

Founded in October 1913 by Sigmund Livingston, the ADL's charter states,

"The immediate object of the League is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience and, if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people. Its ultimate purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens."[1]

Livingston established the ADL in direct response to the case of Leo Frank, a Jewish factory manager living in the state of Georgia who had been arrested and convicted (on circumstantial evidence) in 1913 for the rape and murder of Mary Phagan (subsequent investigators and the Governor of Georgia who commuted his sentence asserted Frank was innocent of the crime[3]) and then kidnapped from prison and lynched by a mob in 1915.

Goals

Antisemitism
Judenstern

History · Timeline · Resources

Manifestations
Anti-globalization related · Arab
Christian · Islamic · Nation of Islam
New · Racial · Religious
Secondary · Academic · Worldwide

Allegations
Deicide · Blood libel · Ritual murder
Well poisoning · Host desecration
Jewish lobby · Jewish Bolshevism · Kosher tax
Dreyfus affair
Zionist Occupation Government
Holocaust denial

Antisemitic publications
On the Jews and Their Lies Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The International Jew
Mein Kampf
The Culture of Critique series

Persecutions
Expulsions · Ghettos · Pogroms
Jewish hat · Judensau
Yellow badge · Spanish Inquisition
Segregation · The Holocaust
Nazism · Neo-Nazism

Opposition
Anti-Defamation League
Community Security Trust
EUMC · Stephen Roth Institute
Wiener Library · SPLC · SWC
UCSJ · SCAA · Yad Vashem

Categories
Antisemitism · Jewish history

Fighting anti-Semitism, bigotry, and racism

The stated purpose of the ADL is to fight "Anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry (in the United States) and abroad, combat international terrorism, probe the roots of hatred, advocate before the United States Congress, come to the aid of victims of bigotry, develop educational programs, and serve as a public resource for government, media, law enforcement, and the public, all towards the goal of countering and reducing hatred."

Historically, the ADL has opposed groups and individuals it considered to be anti-Semitic and/or racist, including: Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan, Henry Ford, Father Charles Coughlin (leader of the Christian Front), the Christian Identity movement, the German-American Bund, neo-Nazis, the American militia movement and white power skinheads (note that the ADL acknowledges that there are also non-racist skinheads).[4][5] The ADL publishes reports on a variety of countries, regarding alleged incidents of anti-Jewish attacks and propaganda.

The ADL maintains that some forms of criticism of Zionism and Israel are actually anti-Semitism. The Anti-Defamation League states:

"Criticism of particular Israeli actions or policies in and of itself does not constitute anti-Semitism. Certainly the sovereign State of Israel can be legitimately criticized just like any other country in the world. However, it is undeniable that there are those whose criticism of Israel or of "Zionism" is used to mask anti-Semitism."[6]

Courage to Care Award

On April 23, 1987, the Anti-Defamation League initiated a unique award to honor rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust era. The award, called “Courage to Care,” is a plaque with miniature bas-reliefs depicting the backdrop for the rescuers’ exceptional deeds during the Nazis’ persecution, deportation and murder of millions of Jews. It is a replica of the plaques which constitute the Holocaust Memorial Wall created by noted sculptor Arbit Blatas, who also created the Holocaust Memorial in Paris and the display in the old ghetto of Venice, Italy. The award is given during specific programs and ceremonies sponsored by the ADL, often occurring several times a year, when possible.

Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, was established in 1953 to perpetuate the memory of the Jewish world destroyed in the Holocaust.

Since 1962, Yad Vashem conferred the title “Righteous Among the Nations” on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews. A special committee is impaneled to study the evidence gathered from survivors and documents in order to establish the authenticity of each rescue story. To date, over 9,000 men and women have been so honored by Yad Vashem.

In addition to examining its own records, ADL consults with Yad Vashem before conferring the Courage to Care award. The Courage to Care program is sponsored by Eileen Ludwig Greenland.

Courage to Care honorees:

Gilberto Bosques Saldivar, 2008 Eduardo Propper de Callejón, 2008 Clara M. Ambrus (Bayer), 2008 Martha and Waitstill Sharp, 2007 Khaled Abdelwahhab, 2007 Ernst Leitz II, 2007 Mefail and Njazi Biçaku, 2007 Hiram (Harry) Bingham IV, 2006 Nicholas Winton, 2006 Konstantin Koslovsky, 2006 Giovanni Palatucci, 2004 Dimitrios P. Spiliakos, 2004 Dr. Kostas Nikolaou, 2003 Johanna Vos, 2003 The Partisans of Riccone, Italy, 2003 Hans Georg Calmeyer, 2002 Hannah Pick-Goslar, 2000 Monsignor Beniamo Schivo, 1999 The People of Bulgaria (accepted by President Petar Stoyanov), 1998 Shyqyri Myrto, 1997 Renia & Jerzy Kozminski, 1996 Emilie & Oskar Schindler, 1993 Alice & Paul Paulus, 1993 People of Denmark, 1993 Peter Vlcko, 1991 Stefania Burzminski, 1991 Mela & Alex Roslan, 1990 Friedrich Born, 1990 Marion P. Pritchard, 1990 Anna & Jan Pulchalski, 1989 Le Chambon-Sur-Lignon, 1989 Chiune Sugihara, 1989 Selahattin Ulkumen, 1988 Jan Karski, 1988 Aristides De Sousa Mendes, 1987 Jan & Miep Gies, 1987

Opposition to United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379

The ADL supports the Jewish state and has vociferously opposed resolutions like the 1975 United Nations resolution (revoked in 1991) that had equated Zionism and racism,[7] as well as attempts to revive that formulation at the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa.[8]

Separation of church and state

One of the ADL's major issues is religious freedom for people of all faiths.[9] In the context of public schools, the ADL has taken the position that because Creationism and Intelligent design are religious beliefs, and the government is prohibited from endorsing the beliefs of any particular religion, they should not be taught in science classrooms: "The U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of Americans to believe the religious theories of creation (as well as other theories) but it does not permit them to be taught in public school science classes."[10] Similarly, the ADL supports the legal precedent that it is unconstitutional for the government to post the Ten Commandments in courthouses, schools, and other public places: "True religious liberty means freedom from having the government impose the religion of the majority on all citizens."[11] The ADL has also condemned the public school Bible curriculum published by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools, saying that it raises "serious constitutional problems" and "advocates the acceptance of one faith tradition's interpretation of the Bible over another."[12]

Defending other religions

As its goal is to defend not only Jews, but also "all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens," the ADL has periodically made statements against misrepresentations of other faiths. For example, when the anti-Mormon film "The God Makers" was produced, Rhonda M. Abrams, Central Pacific (San Francisco) Regional Director for the ADL wrote a critical review, including the following statement:

Had a similar movie been made with either Judaism or Catholicism as its target, it would be immediately denounced for the scurrilous piece that it is. I sincerely hope that people of all faiths will similarly repudiate "The Godmakers" as defamatory and untrue, and recognize it for what it truly represents—a challenge to the religious liberty of all.[13]

Tracking "extremists"

The ADL says it keeps track of the activities of various "extremist" groups and movements.[14] According to ADL Director Abe Foxman, "Our mission is to monitor and expose those who are anti-Jewish, racist, anti-democratic, and violence-prone, and we monitor them primarily by reading publications and attending public meetings …. Because extremist organizations are highly secretive, sometimes ADL can learn of their activities only by using undercover sources … [who] function in a manner directly analogous to investigative journalists. Some have performed great service to the American people—for example, by uncovering the existence of right-wing extremist paramilitary training camps—with no recognition and at considerable personal risk."[15]

The ADL regularly releases reports on anti-Semitism and extremist activities on the far left and the far right. For instance, as part of its Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network (L.E.A.R.N.), the ADL has published information about the Militia Movement[16] in America and a guide for law enforcement officials titled Officer Safety and Extremists.[17] An archive of "The Militia Watchdog" research on U.S. right-wing extremism (including groups not specifically cited as anti-Semitic) from 1995 to 2000 is also available on the ADL website.[16]

In the 1990s, some details of the ADL's monitoring activities became public and controversial, including the fact that the ADL had gathered information about some non-extremist groups. (See "The ADL files controversy" below.)

Role in arrest of potential assassins of Barack Obama

In October 2008, the ADL reportedly assisted the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) by providing, on request, information on Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman (as well as their associates and contacts) and on their ties to the Supreme White Alliance. Shortly thereafter, the two men were arrested on charges of plotting to murder dozens of African Americans and plotting to assassinate President-elect Barack Obama.[18][19]

Holocaust awareness

The ADL believes it is important to remember the Holocaust, in order to prevent such an event from ever coming to pass again. Along with sponsoring events and fighting Holocaust deniers and revisionists, the ADL has been active in urging action to stop modern-day "ethnic cleansing" and genocide in places such as Bosnia and Darfur, Sudan.

The ADL spoke out against an advertising campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) beginning in 2003 that equated meat-eating with the Holocaust. A press release from the ADL stated that "PETA's effort to seek 'approval' for their 'Holocaust on Your Plate' campaign is outrageous, offensive and takes chutzpah to new heights. Rather than deepen our revulsion against what the Nazis did to the Jews, the project will undermine the struggle to understand the Holocaust and to find ways to make sure such catastrophes never happen again."[20] On May 5, 2005, PETA issued an apology for comparing the treatment of farm animals to the victims of the Nazi concentration camps. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said she realized that the campaign had caused pain: "This was never our intention, and we are deeply sorry."

See also: Animal rights and the Holocaust

However, the ADL has for many years refused to acknowledge that the Armenian genocide constituted a genocide. In fact, the ADL has actively engaged in efforts to oppose Congressional affirmation of the Armenian Genocide. Only after intense pressure that started in Watertown, Massachusetts did the national ADL issue a “Statement on the Armenian Genocide” on August 21, 2007. The statement declared, “The consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide.” Activists felt that the statement was not a full, unequivocal acknowledgement of the Armenian genocide, because the use of the qualifier “tantamount" was seen as inappropriate, and the use of the word “consequences” was seen as an attempt to circumvent the international legal definition of genocide by avoiding any language that would imply intent, a crucial aspect of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention definition. The ADL convened its national meeting in New York City in early November at which time the issue of the Armenian Genocide was discussed. Upon conclusion, a one sentence press statement was issued that “The National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today, at its annual meeting, decided to take no further action on the issue of the Armenian genocide.” http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Mise_00/5162_00.htm

Other positions

The ADL honors individuals throughout the year for various reasons. On September 23, 2003 at its Tribute to Italy Dinner, the ADL awarded Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi the ADL's distinguished statesman award, an honor "conferred on world leaders who exhibit a commitment to furthering the achievement of regional and world peace, and who possess a special commitment to promoting human and civil rights."[21] Berlusconi is also known for his staunch pro-Israel stance. The ADL has also spoken out against red-baiting and McCarthyism.

In 2006 the ADL condemned Senate Republicans in the United States for attempting to ban same-sex marriage with the Federal Marriage Amendment and praised its demise, calling it "discrimination".[22] That same year the ADL also warned that the debate over illegal immigration was drawing neo-nazis and anti-semites into the ranks of the Minutemen Project.

Interfaith camp

ADL's New England Regional Office has also established a faith-based initiative called "The Interfaith Youth Leadership Program," better known as "Camp If," or Camp Interfaith. Involving teenagers of the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths, the camp brings the teens together for a week at camp where the teens bond and learn about each other's cultures. The camp has emerged as a new attempt to foster good relations between younger members of the Abrahamic faiths.[23]

Relations with ethnic groups

Relations with Arabs and Muslims

ADL publications on condemning bigotry towards Arabs, Muslims, Blacks and members of other minorities have often been used in synagogue adult education programs, and as part of Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim inter-faith dialogue.

The ADL is sometimes at odds with Arab and Muslim groups, particularly over issues involving Israel and anti-Semitism. For instance, the ADL regularly publishes updates to its web site reviewing and cataloguing negative portrayals of Jews in Arab nations' media.[24]

Arab and Muslim groups are often critical of the ADL as well. For example, in a minor flap in New Jersey in June, 2001 over a politician who spoke to a Muslim group, the group accused the ADL of "anti-Muslim McCarthyism".[25]

Another example of tensions between American Muslims and the ADL came about when the ADL issued a June 18, 2004 news release[26] about the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Muslim Students Union.

The ADL alleges that the student group had invited speakers to campus who "made public declarations of support for Hamas, advocated suicide bombings and called for the destruction of Israel." For graduation Group members chose to wear green, the traditional colour of Islam, graduation stoles bearing the Shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith. The ADL's press release described the Shahada as "a declaration of faith that has been closely identified with Palestinian terrorists," and claimed that suicide bombers connected to the Palestinian group Hamas wear green armbands and headbands inscribed with the Shahada as a symbol of their movement, and further stated, "We are troubled that members of the Muslim Students Union have chosen to display symbolism that is closely identified with Palestinian terrorist groups and that can be especially offensive to Jewish students." Controversy arose over the ADL's statement that "The Shahada has come to represent, in radical Muslim circles, support for martyrdom and terrorist groups."

A news release from the Council on American-Islamic Relations denied that the stoles were expressions of support for terrorism, called the ADL's comments "bigoted statements", and demanded an apology; the organization's communications director Sabiha Khan said: "The ADL's hate-filled Islamophobic rhetoric labels all Muslims as terrorists, because every Muslim believes in the declaration of faith as the essence of Islam."[27] The ADL released a clarifying statement saying the ADL has nothing against the Muslim statement of faith and that, "It was never our intent to offend anyone and we apologize to those who took offense."[28]

See also: Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs

Relations with African-Americans

The ADL has worked to combat racism against all racial groups, including racism against blacks. In 1997, the National Center for Black-Jewish Relations of Dillard University, a historically black university in New Orleans awarded the director of the ADL, Abraham H. Foxman, with the first Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. - Donald R. Mintz Freedom and Justice Award.

In 2004 the ADL became the lead partner in the Peace and Diversity Academy, a new New York City public high school with predominantly black and Hispanic students.

In celebration of Black History Month, the ADL created and distributed lesson plans to middle and high school teachers about Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to the US Congress, and an important civil rights leader.

The ADL has also publicly charged certain African Americans with anti-Semitism:

The ADL files controversy

Since the 1930s the ADL has been gathering information and publishing reports on anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice, and on anti-Jewish, anti-Israel, racist, anti-democratic, violent, and extremist individuals and groups. As a result, the organization has amassed what it once called a "famous storehouse of accurate, detailed, unassailable information on extremist individuals and organizations."[41] Over the decades the ADL has assembled thousands of files.

One of its sources was Roy Bullock, a person who collected information and provided it to the ADL as a secretly-paid independent contractor over 32 years. Bullock often wrote letters to various groups and forwarded copies of their replies to the ADL, clipped articles from newspapers and magazines, and maintained files on his computer. He also used less orthodox, and possibly illegal, methods such as combing through trash and tapping into the White Aryan Resistance's phone message system to find evidence of hate crimes. Some of the information he obtained and then passed on to the ADL came from confidential documents (including intelligence files on various Nazi groups and driver's license records and other personal information on nearly 1,400 people) that were given to him by San Francisco police officer Tom Gerard[42].

On April 8, 1993, police seized Bullock's computer and raided the ADL offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. A search of Bullock's computer revealed he had compiled files on 9,876 individuals and more than 950 groups across the political spectrum. Many of Bullock's files concerned groups that did not fit the mold of extremist groups, hate groups, and organizations hostile to Jews or Israel that the ADL would usually be interested in. Along with files on the Ku Klux Klan, White Aryan Resistance, and Islamic Jihad were data on the Jewish Defense League, the NAACP, the African National Congress (ANC), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the United Auto Workers, the AIDS activist group ACT UP, Mother Jones magazine, the TASS Soviet/Russian news agency, Greenpeace, Jews for Jesus and the National Lawyers Guild; there were also files on politicians including Democratic U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi, former Republican U.S. Representative Pete McCloskey, and activist Lyndon LaRouche.[42][43] Bullock told investigators that many of those were his own private files, not information he was passing on to the ADL. An attorney for the ADL stated that "We knew nothing about the vast extent of the files. Those are not ADL's files. … That is all [Bullock's] doing."[44] As for its own records, the ADL indicated that just because it had a file on a group did not indicate opposition to the group. The San Francisco district attorney at the time accused the ADL of conducting a national "spy network", but dropped all accusations a few months later. [45]

In the weeks following the raids, twelve civil rights groups led by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the National Lawyers Guild, filed a lawsuit demanding ADL release its survellance information and end its investigations, as well as be ordered to pay punitive damages.[46] The plaintiffs' attorney, former Representative McCloskey, claimed that information the ADL gathered constituted an invasion of privacy. The ADL, while distancing itself from Bullock, countered that it is entitled like any researcher or journalist to research organizations and individuals. Richard Cohen, legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, stated that like journalists, the ADL's researchers "gather information however they can" and welcome disclosures from confidential sources, saying "they probably rely on their sources to draw the line" on how much can legally be divulged. Bullock admitted that he was overzealous, and that some of the ways he gathered information may have been illegal.[44]

The lawsuit was settled out of court in 1999. The ADL agreed to pay $175,000 for the court costs of the groups that sued it, promised that it would not seek information from sources it knew could not legally disclose such information, consented to remove sensitive information like criminal records or Social Security numbers from its files, and spent $25,000 to further relations between the Jewish, Arab and black communities. When the case was settled, Hussein Ibish, director of communications for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), claimed that the ADL had gathered data "systematically in a program whose clear intent was to undermine civil rights and Arab-American organizations". ADL national director Abraham Foxman called the ADC's claims "absolutely untrue," saying that "if it were true, they would have won their case" and noting that no court found the ADL guilty of any wrongdoing. The ADL released a statement saying that the settlement "explicitly recognizes ADL's right to gather information in any lawful and constitutionally protected manner, which we have always done and will continue to do."[45]

Armenian Genocide controversy

In 2007, Abraham Foxman came under criticism for his stance on the Armenian Genocide. Foxman had opposed calls for the U.S. Government to recognise it as a "genocide".[47] “I don't think congressional action will help reconcile the issue. The resolution takes a position; it comes to a judgment,” said Foxman in a statement issued to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The Turks and Armenians need to revisit their past. The Jewish community shouldn't be the arbiter of that history, nor should the U.S. Congress." The ADL felt the safety of Israel, which considers Turkey a rare Muslim ally, was paramount to the issue.[48]

In early August 2007, complaints about the Anti-Defamation League's refusal to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide led to the Watertown, Massachusetts unanimous town council decision to end their participation in the ADL "No Place for Hate" campaign.

In early August 2007, an editorial in The Boston Globe criticized the ADL saying that "as an organization concerned about human rights, it ought to acknowledge the genocide against the Armenian people during World War I, and criticize Turkish attempts to repress the memory of this historical reality."[49]

On 17 August, 2007, the ADL fired its regional New England director, Andrew H. Tarsy, for breaking ranks with the main organization and saying the ADL should recognize the genocide.[48]

In a 21 August 2007 press release, the ADL changed its position to one of acknowledging the genocide but maintained its opposition to congressional resolutions aimed at recognizing it.[50] Foxman wrote, "the consequences of those actions," by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians, "were indeed tantamount to genocide."[51] The Turkish government condemned the league's statement.[52] Andrew H. Tarsy was rehired by the league on 27 August,[53] though he has since chosen to step down from his position.[54]

The ADL was criticized by many in the Armenian community including The Armenian Weekly newspaper, in which writer Michael Mensoian stated:

The belated backtracking of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in acknowledging the planned, systematic massacre of 1,500,000 Armenian men, women and children as “…tantamount to genocide…” is discouraging. Tantamount means something is equivalent. If it’s equivalent, why avoid using the term? For the ADL to justify its newly adopted statement because the word genocide did not exist at the time indicates a halfhearted attempt to placate Armenians while not offending Turkey. Historians use the term genocide simply because it is the proper term to describe the horrific events that the Ottoman Turkish government unleashed on the Armenian people.[55]

After Foxman's capitulation, the New England ADL pressed the organization's national leadership to support a congressional resolution acknowledging the genocide.[56] After hours of closed-door debate at the annual national meeting in New York, the proposal was ultimately withdrawn.[56] The organization issued a statement saying it would "take no further action on the issue of the Armenian genocide." Tarsy submitted his resignation on December 4.[56]

Since August, human rights commissions in other Massachusetts communities have decided in to follow Watertown's lead and withdraw from them ADL's No Place for Hate anti-discrimination program.[56]

Criticism

Some complain that criticism of Israel, even by Jews, is being attacked by the ADL as anti-semitic. Jewish linguist and activist Noam Chomsky, who repeatedly came under the ADL's criticism,[57][58] wrote in his 1989 book Necessary Illusions:

The ADL has virtually abandoned its earlier role as a civil rights organization, becoming 'one of the main pillars' of Israeli propaganda in the U.S.… These efforts, buttressed by insinuations of anti-Semitism or direct accusations, are intended to deflect or undermine opposition to Israeli policies, including Israel's refusal, with U.S. support, to move towards a general political settlement.

…one of the ugliest, most powerful pressure groups in the U.S. … Its primary commitment is to use any technique, however dishonest and disgraceful, in order to defame and silence and destroy anybody who dares to criticize the Holy State ('Israel').

Michael Lerner, a prominent left-wing rabbi, has criticized the ADL on similar grounds:

The ADL lost most of it credibility in my eyes as a civil rights organization when it began to identify criticisms of Israel with anti-Semitism, still more when it failed to defend me when I was receiving threats to my life from right-wing Jewish groups because of my critique of Israeli policy toward Palestinians (it said that these were not threats that came from my being Jewish, so therefore they were not within their area of concern).[59]

The ADL has also drawn fire from some Orthodox Jewish leaders who charge it is more interested in promoting a dogmatic form of secularism than in promoting religious tolerance and in the process promoting anti-Christian bigotry and hatred. Orthodox Rabbi Daniel Lapin has charged:

The most deeply held values of the ADL are a hatred of Judaism and Christianity—and a secularization of society.[60]

Role in cancellation of speech by Tony Judt at Polish Consulate

The ADL, in addition to the American Jewish Committee, was criticized by a number of individuals for allegedly pressuring the Polish Consul General in New York to cancel a scheduled appearance by academic Tony Judt at a non-profit organization that rents space from the consulate. In an interview with the New York Sun, the national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman, claimed that the group "had nothing to do with the cancellation",[61] insisting that the ADL only called to ask if the event was being sponsored by the Polish government.[62] This was contradicted, however, by the Polish Consul General Krzysztof Kasprzyk who claimed in an interview with the Washington Post that calls by the ADL and the American Jewish Committee, made just an hour before the scheduled event, were "exercising a delicate pressure".[63] In reference to the role of the ADL and American Jewish Committee in organizing the cancellations, Judt told the Washington Post: "This is serious and frightening, and only in America—not in Israel—is this a problem. These are Jewish organizations that believe they should keep people who disagree with them on the Middle East away from anyone who might listen."[63] Judt's criticism was echoed by Rabbi Michael Lerner, who said in an interview with the Washington Post: "There is an often organized and often spontaneous attempt to marginalize anyone in the Jewish world who offers a critique of Israeli policy. It's equated with anti-Semitism and Israel denial."[63]

Denver defamation suit

According to an April 13 2001 article in The Forward, a federal judge "lambasted the organization for labeling a nasty neighborhood feud as an anti-Semitic event" and upheld most of William and Dorothy Quigley's $10 million lawsuit for defamation. In 1994, Candace and Mitchell Aronson, Jewish next door neighbors of the Quigleys, contacted the Denver ADL office, claiming to have overheard cordless phone conversations of the Quigleys talking about putting pictures of oven doors on the Aronsons' home (a reference to the Holocaust), burning the Aronson children and wishing the Aronsons had been killed in a suicide bombing. The Quigleys and the Aronsons had been engaged in an escalating series of petty disputes prior to this incident. The ADL advised the Aronsons to tape the Quigleys (a tactic which had recently been made illegal). The ADL also labelled the Quigleys as violent anti-Semites in a press conference which led to felony federal charges being filed against them.

The Quigleys successfully sued the ADL for falsely portraying them as anti-Semites.

Judge Edward W. Nottingham of the United States District Court for the District of Colorado wrote "it is not unreasonable to infer that public charges of anti-Semitism leveled by the ADL will be taken seriously and assumed by many to be true without question. In that respect, the ADL is in a unique position of being able to cause substantial harm to individuals when it lends its backing to allegations of anti-Semitism." The judge concluded that the ADL supported the Aronsons' accusations without investigating the case, or weighing of the consequences.[64]

Criticism of reporting on pagan symbols

The ADL publishes lists of symbols used by groups they allege to be anti-Semitic and racist groups.[65] Included in these publications are several ancient Germanic pagan symbols that were sometimes used by the Third Reich and some Neo-Nazi groups but predate these groups by thousands of years. At the time, no clarification was given of these ancient origins and they were simply listed as "hate symbols" without further explanation by the ADL in their summaries.

Various Germanic Neopagan groups protested that these symbols were wrongly used by hate groups, far predated the groups the ADL had associated them with and should not be described as symbols of racism. Following an organized e-mail protest by Germanic neopagans across the globe (largely by the Odinic Rite), the ADL added disclaimers noting that the symbols they listed were not necessarily signs of racism by amending its publications to categorize these symbols as "pagan symbols co-opted by extremists".[66]

Criticism of the Confederate flag

The ADL had for many years attacked or denounced the Confederate flag as a symbol of racial hatred, divisiveness and defense of pre-1964 de jure segregation of African Americans by white racist hate groups in the Southern U.S.; in part of the legacy the Confederate flag represented the far-right and anti-integrationist elements of the South's resistance to end slavery and later the Jim Crow laws during the Civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s that put an end to the formerly legal practice. But Southern heritage groups like the League of the South, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the Daughters of the Confederacy insisted to the ADL that the "Stars and Bars" flag isn't meant to be a racist symbol, but it serves as a legitimate grievance by their ancestral struggle against government oppression and the destructiveness of the American Civil War by Union or Northern soldiers onto the South during the tumultuous time.

New antisemitism controversy

In 1974, ADL national leaders Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein published a book called The New Anti-Semitism (New York, 1974), arguing that a new kind of anti-Semitism is on the rise. In 1982, ADL national leader Nathan Perlmutter and his wife, Ruth Ann Perlmutter, released a book entitled The Real Anti-Semitism in America (New York, 1982). In 2003, ADL's national director Abraham Foxman published Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (San Francisco, 2003), where on page 4 he states: "We currently face as great a threat to the safety and security of the Jewish people as the one we faced in the 1930s—if not a greater one."[67]

In 2005, ADL critic Norman G. Finkelstein published Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History which devotes Part 1 to "The Not-So-New 'New Anti-Semitism'." In a 2006 appearance on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!, Finkelstein said:

Every time Israel comes under international pressure, as it did recently because of the war crimes committed in Lebanon, it steps up the claim of anti-Semitism, and all of Israel's critics are anti-Semitic. 1974, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, puts out a book called The New Anti-Semitism. 1981, the Anti-Defamation League puts out a book, The New Anti-Semitism. And then, again in 2000, Abraham Foxman and people like Phyllis Chesler, they put out these books called The New Anti-Semitism. So the use of the charge "anti-Semitism" is pretty conventional whenever Israel comes under attack, and frankly it has no content whatsoever nowadays.... What does the evidence show? There has been good investigation done, serious investigation. All the evidence shows there's no—there's no evidence at all for a rise of a new anti-Semitism, whether in Europe or in North America. The evidence is zero. And, in fact, there's a new book put out by an Israel stalwart. His name is Walter Laqueur, a very prominent scholar. It's called The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism. It just came out, 2006, from Oxford University Press. He looks at the evidence, and he says no. There's some in Europe among the Muslim community, there's some anti-Semitism, but the notion that in the heart of European society or North American society there's anti-Semitism is preposterous."[68]

Conservative bias

Blogger Glenn Greenwald has criticized the ADL for only reacting to Nazi comparisons made by people on the left, such as a MoveOn ad which compared George W. Bush with Adolf Hitler, while standing idly by when people on the right (like Jonah Goldberg and Bill O'Reilly) have compared liberals to Nazis.[69]

Conflict with Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO)

ADL is an advocate for gun control legislation.[70] The ADL supported the District of Columbia before the US Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller which argued that the city's ban on the possession of handguns and any functional firearms, even for self-defense in the home is not prohibited by the Second Amendment.[71]. The League urged the Court to ensure that states retain the ability to keep guns out of the hands of "violent bigots."

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO), a gun rights group has been highly critical of the Anti-Defamation League. In pamphlets such as "Why Does the ADL Support Nazi-Based Laws?"[72] and "JPFO Facts vs. ADL Lies,"[73] the JPFO has accused the ADL of undermining the welfare of the Jewish people by promoting gun control. In a 2007 handbill, the JPFO accused Director Abraham Foxman of knowingly supporting the "use of Nazi gun control laws in America."[74] Foxman has written about the JPFO: "Anti-Semitism has a long and painful history, and the linkage to gun control is a tactic by Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership to manipulate the fear of anti-Semitism toward their own end."[75]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "About ADL". ADL. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
  2. ↑ Traub, James (2007-01-14). "Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?". The New York Times: 30. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/magazine/14foxman.t.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1. Retrieved on 2007-05-28. 
  3. ↑ Dinnerstein, Leonard (2003-10-10). "Leo Frank Case". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 2006-05-25. Retrieved on 2007-05-28.
  4. ↑ "Racist Skinhead Project". ADL.
  5. ↑ NY Times article: "A.D.L. Acknowledges Nonracist Skinheads"
  6. ↑ "Anti-Semitism and Criticism of Israel". ADL.
  7. ↑ "U.N. World Conference Against Racism". ADL.
  8. ↑ "U.N. World Conference Against Racism". ADL.
  9. ↑ "Religious Freedom". Anti-Defamation League. Retrieved on 2007-12-02. "Safeguarding religious freedom for all Americans – whether in the majority or minority."
  10. ↑ "Religion in the Science Class? Why Creationism and Intelligent Design Don't Belong". ADL.
  11. ↑ "The Ten Commandments Controversy: A First Amendment Perspective - Prohibitions on Display of the Ten Commandments". ADL.
  12. ↑ ADL (2005-11-07). "ADL Says Bible Teaching Guide for Public Schools 'Unacceptable'". Press release.
  13. ↑ Letter to Dr. Richard Lindsay, Director of Public Communications, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 25, 1984
  14. ↑ "Extremism". ADL.
  15. ↑ "A League of His Own," letter to the editor, The Village Voice 38:20 (May 18, 1993)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "The Militia Movement – Extremism in America". ADL.
  17. ↑ "Officer Safety and Extremists: An Overview for Law Enforcement Officers". ADL.
  18. ↑ ADL Applauds Law Enforcement for Preventing Killing Spree and Obama Assassination Attempt, ADL Press Release, October 27, 2008.
  19. ↑ ADL helped probe into neo-Nazis, Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA)(reprinted by the Jerusalem Post), October 28, 2008.
  20. ↑ ADL (2003-02-24). "ADL Denounces Peta for its "Holocaust On Your Plate" Campaign; Calls Appeal for Jewish Community Support 'The Height Of Chutzpah'". Press release.
  21. ↑ "Speech by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi at the Anti-Defamation League Tribute to Italy Dinner". ADL.
  22. ↑ ADL (2006-06-07). "ADL Welcomes Demise Of Same-Sex Marriage Amendment; Expresses 'Dismay' At Senate Vote". Press release.
  23. ↑ Siek, Stephanie V. (2006-04-06). "A different kind of camp". The Boston Globe. http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/04/06/a_different_kind_of_camp/. 
  24. ↑ "Anti-Semitism in the Muslim/Arab World". ADL.
  25. ↑ "National Muslim groups condemn ADL "Anti-Muslim McCarthyism"". Council on American-Islamic Relations (2001-06-08).
  26. ↑ ADL (2004-06-18). "ADL Statement On The Muslim Student Union at UC-Irvine". Press release.
  27. ↑ "Muslims Demand Apology for ADL's 'Hate-Filled Rhetoric'". Council on American-Islamic Relations (2001-06-19).
  28. ↑ http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=32363
  29. ↑ "Farrakhan In His Own Words". ADL.
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 "Farrakhan and the Jewish Rift; How It All Started". The Final Call. http://www.finalcall.com/perspectives/rift.html. 
  31. ↑ Foxman, Abraham H. (1994-07-20). "Today's N.A.A.C.P. Draws on History; Set Farrakhan Aside". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9503E7DE143EF933A15754C0A962958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fSubjects%2fR%2fReligion%20and%20Belief. 
  32. ↑ "Post Reaffirms Report On Jackson Comment". The New York Times: 13. 1984-02-23. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E10FB3B5D0C708EDDAB0894DC484D81. 
  33. ↑ "Jackson Admits Saying 'Hymie' And Apologizes At A Synagogue". The New York Times: 16. 1984-02-27. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A14F83C5D0C748EDDAB0894DC484D81. 
  34. ↑ ADL (1999-06-11). "Rev. Jesse Jackson Meets with Iranian Jewish Families Pledges to Intercede on Behalf of Imprisoned Jews". Press release.
  35. ↑ Caryn James (1990-08-16). "Spike Lee's Jews and the Passage From Benign Cliche Into Bigotry". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2D6113DF935A2575BC0A966958260. 
  36. ↑ Ariel Levy (2006-08-13). "The Angriest Auteur". New York Magazine. http://nymag.com/movies/profiles/19144/. 
  37. ↑ ADL (2005-02-14). "ADL Calls on Russell Simmons to Distance Himself from Minister Farrakhan". Press release.
  38. ↑ ADL (2005-05-02). "ADL Urges Prominent African-American Leaders to Reconsider Their Support for the "Millions More Movement"". Press release.
  39. ↑ Simmons, Russell (2005-05-09). "Russell Simmons Responds to Abraham Foxman about the Millions More Movement". Millions More Movement.
  40. ↑ "Response to Russell Simmons". ADL (2005-05-09).
  41. ↑ "1930-1940 The World and ADL Were Changing...". History of the ADL. ADL.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Richard C. Paddock, "New Details of Extensive ADL Spy Operation Emerge," Los Angeles Times, April 13, 1993, A1
  43. ↑ Burghardt, Tom (1997-01-16). "The 'Public-Private Partnership'". Antifa Info-Bulletin.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 Meredith Jane Adams, "Anti-Defamation League may have broken records laws", Chicago Tribune, May 3, 1993.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Wiener, Julie (1999-10-01). "ADL settles with Arabs, others to wrap up 6-year lawsuit", The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California. 
  46. ↑ James Bolden, Coalition of Civil Rights Groups Sue Anti-Defamation League, Los Angeles Sentinel, November 3, 1993.
  47. ↑ "Fire Foxman: Denying the Armenian Genocide should be the last atrocity perpetrated by the ADL chief.".
  48. ↑ 48.0 48.1 O'Brien, Keith (2007-08-18). "ADL local leader fired on Armenian issue: Genocide question sparked bitter debate". The Boston Globe.
  49. ↑ "A genocide not to be denied", Boston Globe (2007-08-03). 
  50. ↑ "ADL Statement on the Armenian Genocide" (2007-08-21).
  51. ↑ O'Brien, Keith (2007-08-22). "ADL chief bows to critics: Foxman cites rift, calls Armenian deaths genocide". The Boston Globe.
  52. ↑ Levenson, Michael (2007-08-24). "Turkey condemns statement by ADL". The Boston Globe.
  53. ↑ O'Brien, Keith (2007-09-07). "Anti-Defamation League rehires New England director". The Boston Globe.
  54. ↑ Axelbank, Rachel (2007-12-06). "Tarsy Resignation Draws Mixed Emotions From Area Colleagues". Jewish Advocate.
  55. ↑ "The Armenian Weekly", Volume 73, No. 34, August 25, 2007, By Michael G. Mensoian
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 56.2 56.3 Woolhouse, Megan (2007-12-05). "ADL's regional leader resigns: Backers cite rift on genocide issue". The Boston Globe.
  57. ↑ Deniers, Relativists and Pseudo-Scholarship by Deborah Lipstadt. DIMENSIONS, Vol. 14, No. 1. A Journal of Holocaust Studies. Published by the Anti-Defamation League's Braun Holocaust Institute. Accessed 2007-08-23
  58. ↑ Terrorism Strikes America: What They are Saying September 24, 2001. Accessed 2007-08-23
  59. ↑ Lerner, Michael. "Ask the Rabbi". Tikkun. Archived from the original on 2005-11-10. Retrieved on 2007-05-31.
  60. ↑ [1]
  61. ↑ Stoll, Ira (2006-10-04). "Poland Abruptly Cancels a Speech By Local Critic of the Jewish State". The New York Sun. http://www.nysun.com/article/40911?page_no=1. 
  62. ↑ Foxman, Abraham H. (2006-11-16). "Article on Free Speech and Israel Gets it Wrong". ADL.
  63. ↑ 63.0 63.1 63.2 Powell, Michael (2006-10-09). "In N.Y., Sparks Fly Over Israel Criticism". The Washington Post: A03. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/08/AR2006100800817.html. 
  64. ↑ Jewish News, Jewish Newspapers - Forward.com
  65. ↑ "Hate On Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos". ADL.
  66. ↑ "Hate On Display: A Visual Database of Extremist Symbols, Logos and Tattoos". ADL.
  67. ↑ "Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism". ADL.
  68. ↑ "Congressmember Weiner Gets It Wrong On Palestinian Group He Tried To Bar From U.S.". Democracy Now! (2006-08-30).
  69. ↑ ""Nazis" and "Hitler" -- the Right's casual, trivializing political insults". Glenn Greenwald.
  70. ↑ "[http://www.adl.org/civil_rights/platformcommittee-2004.pdf ADL Presentation to the Platform Committees of the Democratic and Republican National Conventions – June 2004]" (pdf). ADL (2004). Retrieved on 2008-01-23. "The Anti-Defamation League has been an advocate for strong, effective, and sensible gun control legislation."
  71. ↑ ADL (2008-01-11). "ADL To Supreme Court: States Should Regulate Firearms". Press release.  “"The League urged the Court to ensure that states retain the ability to keep guns out of the hands of "violent bigots.""”
  72. ↑ The Liberty Crew (September 20, 2007) "Why Does the ADL Support Nazi-Based Laws?" JPFO.org.
  73. ↑ Editors (1997-1999) "JPFO Facts vs. ADL Lies." JPFO.org.
  74. ↑ JPFO editors "The Anti-Defamation League Is Anti-American." JPFO.org.
  75. ↑ Foxman, Abraham H. (May 21, 1995) "N.R.A. Doesn't Represent George Bush or Even Most Members; Jewish Pro-Gun Group." New York Times.

External links

ADL position statements

Criticism of ADL