http://www.vny.com/cf/News/upidetail.cfm?QID=172359
Analysis: Rabbi calls ADL leader Jews' 'worst enemy'
Wednesday, 28 March 2001 18:54 (ET)
Analysis: Rabbi calls ADL leader Jews' 'worst enemy'
By LOU MARANO
WASHINGTON, Mar. 28 (UPI) -- Calling secular Judaism's preoccupation with
victimhood "liberalism with a circumcision," an Orthodox rabbi has given
the"Our Own Worst Enemy Award" to the head of the Anti-Defamation League.
An ADL official has dismissed the characterization.
Rabbi Daniel Lapin is president of Toward Tradition, a group based in Mercer
Island, Wa., that describes itself as "a coalition of Jews and Christians
dedicated to fighting secular institutions that foster anti-Semitism, harm
families, and jeopardize the future of America." The group bestowed the
"award" upon ADL National Director Abraham Foxman on Wednesday.
"The award is given to a Jewish American who exemplifies those cultural
forces that most endanger Jewish continuity, substituting unhealthy values
for Judaism itself," Toward Tradition said. "Children thus grow up to dismiss
Jewish identity as, for example, merely with an obsession with death and
persecution, or as liberalism with a circumcision."
"I think Abe Foxman means well," Lapin said. "But he's deluded by liberalism,
a worldview preoccupied by victimhood."
The rabbi called attention to Foxman's letter that appeared in the March 23
editions of the New York Times. In it, the ADL leader compared the newspaper
ads by conservative activist David Horowitz -- who opposes monetary
reparations to American blacks for being the descendants of slaves-- with
Holocaust deniers.
"Put that together with Foxman's statement last week about the 'big eruption'
of anti-Semitism in New York, and so on, and you get the picture of a guy
who's not in close touch with reality," Lapin said.
The rabbi was referring to a March 21 New York Times story in which Foxman
was quoted as saying: "Anti-Semitism is a disease, and we have seen a big
eruption of that disease in New York." Foxman based his remark on an ADL
survey that says anti-Semitic incidents rose by about 49 percent in New
YorkCity last year.
David Klinghofer, Toward Tradition's editorial director, questions the
survey's validity. Many of the incidents recorded are not crimes, he said,but
rather "anything anybody perceived as anti-Semitic." The ADL "gets paid (by
contributors) according to how much anti-Semitism it finds," Klinghofer told
United Press International Wednesday.
Toward Tradition said that Foxman's "tireless efforts" to convince American
Jews that they are beset by "a phantom anti-Semitism," when their own
experience suggests otherwise, "have helped to confirm many in thebelief that
being a Jew has to do mainly with being oppressed and hated."
The American Jewish Committee's annual study for 1999 reported
thatanti-Semitism is the main concern of 62 percent of American Jews, up 5
points from 1998. This belief pertains "notwithstanding the strength of
democratic institutions and legal protections in the United States," AJC
President Bruce M. Ramer said at the time.
The study, which was summarized in a June 9, 1999, story in the
WashingtonTimes, also revealed that American Jews give a low priority to
religious observance and believe recalling the Holocaust is the key to being
a Jew.
In its story, the Times quoted Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, humanities professor
at New York University, who believes Jews are "absolutely free andequal" in
America.
"I deplore the survey results," Hertzberg said. "When you say: 'Remember,we
have enemies,' it simply feeds a neurosis. I maintain that Jewish life isnot
fear, but affirmation."
Toward Tradition's National Director Yarden Weidenfeld also said that
traditional Judaism, as taught by Lapin, celebrates life. Foxman's approach
constitutes the real threat to American Jewry, Weidenfeld told UPI in a
Wednesday phone interview, because young American Jews who associate their
religion with death and misery are more likely to marry Gentile partners.The
real danger is assimilation, Weidenfeld said.
ADL Assistant National Director Ken Jacobson dismissed Toward Tradition and
its positions. "At some level, I might not want to dignify the comments," he
said in a phone interview on Wednesday. "I don't really think that Rabbi
Lapin and his organization represent anything significant in the Jewish
community."
But Jacobson quickly overcame his reluctance. He denied that Foxman'sletter
likened Horowitz to Holocaust-deniers because Foxman did not assert that
Horowitz denied the existence of slavery.
"We were concerned about the denigration of blacks and the slave experience
that was implicit in the Horowitz message" opposing reparations,Jacobson told
UPI. "It's only like ... the Holocaust denial theme in the sense that, in
both issues, there are things that were offensive, and a newspaper isn't
obligated under the First Amendment to print every ad."
Jacobson was referring to student editors of campus newspapers. Of course,the
First Amendment constrains only government, not newspapers or advertisers. In
response, Weidenfeld said the students' ignorance of the Constitution "is
their problem" and has nothing to do with Holocaust denial.
Toward Tradition said it picked Foxman "from among other representatives of
the Anti-Semitism Industry" because of his role in former president Clinton's
pardon of fugitive tax evader Marc Rich
.Citing Friday's Newsweek report, the group said: "After the ADL received
a$100,000 check from the Rich Foundation, Foxman wrote to Bill Clinton urging
the pardon." In doing so, Foxman "joined other leading Jewish liberals who
had benefited from the billionaire's largesse. The ensuing scandal was a
comfort to true anti-Semites who say that Jews buy and sell justice," Toward
Tradition said.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Foxman said the previous
daythat he was wrong to have lobbied for Rich.
