Mourn the Man – But Avoid Emulating Abe Foxman’s Actions

Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.

When I heard of former ADL (Anti-Defamation League) National Director Abe Foxman’s passing, I initially thought: this is a time to mourn. It seemed pointless and inappropriate to bring up the damage he caused to important efforts to combat Jew-hatred and Israel-hatred.

But a few days later, I received a mass email from The Focus Project (a group that ADL is a major member of) calling for “emulating” Mr. Foxman, including Foxman’s public opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu addressing Congress in March 2015; and Foxman’s condemnation of President Trump’s 2024 Madison Square Garden rally. That email changed the calculus. Mourn, yes. But it is immoral to remain silent about those actions that we must not emulate going forward, when certain groups say that we must emulate them.  I’ll start the below list of “what not to emulate” with the two items mentioned in The Focus Project mass email.

Wrongly Condemning President Trump’s 2024 Madison Square Rally:

Foxman posted that the Trump rally used “ugly hateful words against Jews and other minorities” like those that led to “the gas chambers in Auschwitz,” and demanded condemnation of the rally’s “blatant words of hate ,racism, antisemitism,Islamophobia,misogyny” [sic] But Foxman cited no actual hateful words spoken at the rally. Nor could he. The rally was pro-Israel, with Jews openly wearing kippahs and waving Israeli flags. The crowd cheered, when, for instance, rally speakers such as former Mayor Rudy Giuliani said: “I’m on the side of Israel. You’re on the side of Israel. Donald Trump’s on the side of Israel.”; Congresswoman Elise Stefanik condemned skyrocketing antisemitism on college campuses; and radio personality Sid Rosenberg said that he just got back from Israel, and that Israelis love Trump and Bibi. Condemning a pro-Israel, pro-Jewish rally as Nazi-like should not be emulated.

Wrongly Opposing Netanyahu’s March 3, 2015 Address to Congress:

In January 2015, then-Speaker of the House John Boehner, on behalf of the House and Senate bipartisan leadership, official invited PM Netanyahu to “address Congress on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life.” Netanyahu’s impassioned address laid out the dangers the Iranian regime posed to America and the world; the dangers of the pending bad Iran deal; and described how to pursue the alternative of a good deal. Unfortunately, Foxman’s criticism gave “cover” to the 60 Democrats who boycotted Netanyahu’s address, and undermined the speech’s impact. Going forward, when Israeli leaders come to warm about such dire threats, we should wholeheartedly supporttheir efforts instead of undermining them.

Conditional Support for Israel:

In December 2022, Foxman wrongly portrayed judicial reform as undemocratic, and threatened that if Israel reformed its judicial system, or tightened its permissive Law of Return (which includes individuals with only one Jewish grandparent), it would be difficult for him to support Israel. He stated that his support for Israel was “conditional” on Israel maintaining policies that Foxman viewed as “democratic.” In other words, Foxman would end all support for Israel if Israel democratically adopted policies that Foxman disagreed with.

As Mort Klein and I wrote, the proposed Israeli judicial reforms would have in fact improved Israeli democracy.

More significantly, it would be devastating if Americans were to emulate Foxman’s “conditional” support for Israel. One’s personal disagreement with a democratically elected Israeli government’s policies should not be a basis for withdrawing support for the Jewish State.

Lobbying Against Anti-BDS Laws:

In a widely-circulated 2015 op-ed, Foxman wrongly declared that anti-BDS laws strike “at the heart of First Amendment-protected free speech.” Shockingly, under Foxman’s leadership, the ADL also opposed and lobbied against anti-BDS bills in New York and Maryland, declined to support the anti-BDS law in Illinois, and opposed a federal anti-BDS law. Legal expert Eugene Kontorovich, ZOA President Mort Klein and ZOA attorneys (including me) explained that Foxman’s view was wrong: anti-BDS laws permissibly limit whom the state will do business with – similar to all other anti-discrimination contracting laws.

No one should emulate Foxman’s opposition to laws that protect Jews from discrimination.

Disparaging Trump and Secure Borders:

On September 11, 2020, Foxman published an article entitled “Trump is Bad for America and Bad for the Jews” which contained unsupported, generalized invective towards President Trump and endorsed then-candidate Biden’s election. The only actual Trump policy that Foxman condemned was Trump’s immigration approach. Foxman claimed that promoting immigration is “inseparable” from the Jewish story because “Jews look beyond our own parochial interests.” Never mind that massive immigration of radical Islamic Jew-haters into America has dramatically endangered Jews on American streets and campuses.  Ironically, Foxman’s article was published on an anniversary of 9-11. At least six of the 9-11 hijackers violated U.S. immigration laws, and many of the hijackers had fraudulent passports.

We should not emulate Foxman’s disparagement of the important, real Jewish interest of keeping terrorists and a massive influx of Jew-haters out of our country.

Giving a “Kosher Stamp of Approval” to Antisemitic, Israel-Bashing Opera

One of my first projects when I joined ZOA’s staff in 2014 was working to stop the Met Opera’s production and AMC’s planned broadcast of the antisemitic, anti-Israel opera “Death of Klinghoffer.” The opera belittled the Jewish passengers on the hijacked Achille Lauro cruise ship as small-minded materialists; contained libels that Jews get fat from the poor, cheat, exploit, pollute virgins, defame, break laws, and are idolators; glorified the terrorists (who murdered wheelchair-bound Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer) as “men of ideals”; and promoted outrageous lies about Jewish Israelis’ treatment of Arabs in 1948. Leon Klinghoffer’s daughters publicly spoke out that the opera exploited their father’s murder and was antisemitic.

I personally called AMC and persuaded them to cancel the planned worldwide broadcast of the opera. I also worked with a group of strong pro-Israel activists to publicize the opera’s antisemitism and to arrange huge protests outside the Met against its 8 live performances of the opera. We probably could have succeeded in stopping the Met’s live performances – but then Abe Foxman got involved. Foxman announced that the opera was “not antisemitic” – which severely damaging our efforts to stop the performances that spread antisemitic blood libels. To add insult to injury, in order to try to show that he was doing something useful, Foxman claimed credit for my successful effort to stop the AMC broadcasts.

Giving “kosher stamps of approval” to blatantly antisemitic productions is obviously something that should not be emulated.

Supporting J Street and Peace Now to Join the Conference of Presidents

Foxman supported and voted for hostile-to-Israel J Street’s (unsuccessful) effort to join the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, as well as hostile-to-Israel Americans for Peace Now’s successful effort to join the Conference. Foxman’s support and votes gave credibility to Peace Now’s antisemitic policies, such as promoting BDS; and J Street’s non-stop efforts to side with Iran and Israel’s other enemies, undermine and malign Israel, oppose arm sales to Israel, and turn Congress and campuses against the Jewish State.

Honoring Israel-Defamer Tom Friedman – and Attacking ZOA for Privately Urging Foxman to Reconsider: 

In 2016, ADL honored and gave a keynote platform to infamous Israel-defamer Tom Friedman at a major ADL event. Prior to this event, ZOA National President Morton Klein and two others affiliated with ZOA wrote a private letter to Foxman, that listed 13 of Tom Friedman’s dangerous anti-Israel statements, and “respectfully urge[d ADL] to consider canceling [Friedman’s] planned appearance” in light of Friedman’s “long and troubling record of one-sided journalistic attacks on Israel.”

The Center for Security Policy described the situation:

“[Mr. Klein’s and ZOA’s] request not only seems appropriate in light of [Friedman’s] record [of defaming Israel]. It is also entirely consistent with the role played by responsible organizations in a democratic society to hold public figures accountable for their actions . . . Mr. Foxman’s response to the ZOA request has been nothing short of astounding. In a letter dated 25 November, he defended Friedman . . . Worse yet, Mr. Foxman proceeded publicly to denounce Mr. Klein as ‘an attack dog of the thought police,’ urging that Mr. Klein be ‘expelled from the organized Jewish world.’ Mr. Foxman even declared to the Jewish Forward on 29 November 1996 that ‘I am going after Mort Klein because I think this kind of behavior should be ostracized in the [American Jewish] community….If you want to get in the gutter, do it in another community, not in ours.’”

After Mr. Klein complained to the Conference of Presidents about Foxman’s uncalled-for attacks, the Conference insisted that Foxman must apologize. But it didn’t end there. ZOA was later informed that Foxman ordered ADL’s research department to try to dig up dirt on Mr. Klein. They found nothing. Of course, ADL’s research resources should be used for combating antisemitism – not for pursuing baseless vendettas.

No one should emulate Foxman’s insistence on honoring a persistent Israel-defamer, or Foxman’s attacks on and waste of resources trying to smear a real pro-Israel leader and organization.

Unfortunately, there were many more of Mr. Foxman’s actions that should not be emulated. While we mourn Mr. Foxman’s passing, we should learn from his mistakes instead of emulating them.

Elizabeth (Liz) Berney, Esq. is the Director of Research & Special Projects at the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States.