ADL Rejects Carter’s Overture to the Jewish Community
The controversy over Jimmy Carter’s book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” continues at a rolling boil. Today, the Anti-Defamation League issued a biting open letter that rejected the former president’s recent attempt to make peace with American Jews.
Your efforts “to minimize the impact of your charge that American Jews control US Middle East policy are simply unconvincing,” wrote ADL National Chairman Glen Lewy and ADL National Director Abraham Foxman in today’s statement. “In both your book and in your many television and print interviews you have been feeding into conspiracy theories about excessive Jewish power and control.”
In a December 15 “letter to Jewish citizens of America,” Carter described his meeting with leaders of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Phoenix as “the high point” of his recent book tour, and reiterated his justification for using the word “apartheid” in his book’s title and text. Click here to read what one of the rabbis had to say about the meeting.
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chief