SALON

Thursday, Aug 5, 2010 12:30 PM UTC

Mosque episode should be Abe Foxman’s Waterloo

The ADL chief's bigotry has been hiding in plain sight for years. Now that we all see it, it's time for him to go

By

Topics: Park51, Abe Foxman, War Room,

Mosque episode should be Abe Foxman's WaterlooAbe Foxman

To many Americans, the decision of Abe Foxman, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, to oppose the so-called “ground zero mosque” seemed out of character. After all, Foxman is often treated by the media as an arbiter of tolerance; that he would come out in favor of Islamophobia was jarring.

But in truth, Foxman’s actions have been out of step with the stated mission of the ADL for some time. What is new is the backlash his latest pronouncement has generated, with even many of his traditional allies speaking out against him. And since his role is so dependent on moral authority, it may now be time for him to think about finding another job.

The ADL’s mission has always been to aggressively promote tolerance. They’ve relentlessly called attention to white power groups, from the KKK to the neo-Nazis to the militia movement, and sponsored diversity-oriented educational programs. They’ve also been somewhat supportive of interfaith relations, denouncing an anti-Mormon film in the early 1980s.  They can be an attack dog, the public face of the Jewish nonprofit sector, willing to make a public stink about anti-Semitic comments even when others are hesitant.

Running parallel to this history of laudable public service, however, is a darker story centering largely on Foxman. The ADL’s private domestic spying operation had been going on since its inception, but after Foxman took over it engaged in operations like spying on anti-apartheid activists and other non-extremist groups. Foxman and the ADL became worried as much about direct domestic persecution of Jews as they were about opposition to Israel, and began to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. Certainly, anti-Zionism can bleed into anti-Semitism, but Foxman has taken this to a cartoonish degree, demanding apologies from Americans for expressing views on Palestine that would be well within the mainstream in the context of Israeli domestic politics.

Why is Foxman such a caricature? The best explanation may be generational. Like other Jewish men his age, Foxman grew up in a far less tolerant world, and his paranoid policing of public discourse springs from that different formative experience. But today, in a country that’s more pro-Jewish than almost any other in the world, his antics seem out of place, particularly to younger Jews. But a broader point might simply be that he is a classic neoconservative, while the vast majority of American Jews are liberal, and this disconnect has made him less and less able to convincingly play the role of representative of the Jewish people.

Foxman’s conservatism is clear in his selective outrage. He refused to condemn anti-Semitic statements by Sun Myung Moon’s Bush administration-allied Unification church, declined to protest Fox News’ frequent use of Nazi imagery for the purposes of political vilification — and, of course, in contrast to his opposition to an anti-Mormon film, he’s happily gotten on board with the anti-Islamic sentiment that even he acknowledges is key to opponents of the Park51 project near ground zero.

To those who’ve been watching closely, Foxman’s mosque posture could be seen coming. After 9/11 resulted in a surge of anti-Muslim sentiment in America, it became impossible for him to both fulfill the ADL’s historical mission of promoting religious tolerance and advance neoconservative goals, which were often explicitly anti-Muslim.

The ADL’s work is extremely important. To have someone opposed to its fundamental mission at its head greatly diminishes its capacity to accomplish its goals. Foxman owes it to the organization to which he’s dedicated his life to step down and join something that aligns more closely with his present interests, like, say, the Heritage Foundation.

The broad visibility of his hypocrisy — and even bigotry — on this issue has fundamentally changed the way many Americans view Foxman and the ADL. For a long time, he’s managed to mix his political ideology with a religious identity, giving his views a kind of untouchable glow. But no longer. Do American Jews really want Abe Foxman to be their spokesman?

Michael Barthel is a PhD candidate in the communication department at the University of Washington. He has written about pop music for the Awl, Idolator, and the Village Voice. More Michael Barthel.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 41 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
168 points169 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
161 points162 points | 89 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
150 points151 points | 99 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
142 points143 points | 13 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
80 points81 points | 21 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations