Foxman Knows That Being a Leader Means Defending Human Rights and Israel
Abraham Foxman is one of the best known and one of the most formidable of Jewish communal leaders (“As Some Retire From ADL, Will Abe Be Next?” November 5).
A Holocaust survivor, Abe manifests a visceral understanding of the requirements of Jewish leadership. He never wavers in his commitment to the welfare of the Jewish people. And he understands that this commitment entails both support for human rights and for the welfare of the Jewish state of Israel.
The latter commitment goes back long before Abe became the Anti-Defamation League’s national director. It follows from the realization that the demonization of Israel has as its goal, in almost every case, not the promotion of human rights but the destruction of the Jewish state, which would bring calamity to the Jewish people and remove a human rights model from the Middle East.
At the United Nations, where I work on behalf of human rights, I have come across members of the Secretariat from around the world, including the Arab world, who have expressed appreciation for the ADL’s commitment to human rights, and even for its nuanced statement on the Islamic center planned for near Ground Zero.
Harris O. Schoenberg
President
UN Reform Advocates
New York, N.Y.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Letters What Peter Beinart misunderstands about Jewish values
-
Letters After Sinwar’s death, is war really over?
-
Letters Do anti-Zionist Yiddishists see the Hamas massacre of Jews as ‘resistance’?
-
Letters Stating that Palestinians don’t deserve peace due to Oct. 7 doesn’t solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Ye debuts ‘Heil Hitler’ music video that includes a sample of a Hitler speech
- 2
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
- 3
Culture Cardinals are Catholic, not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
- 4
Fast Forward Student suspended for ‘F— the Jews’ video defends himself on antisemitic podcast
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture How one Jewish woman fought the Nazis — and helped found a new Italian republic
-
Opinion It looks like Israel totally underestimated Trump
-
Fast Forward Betar ‘almost exclusively triggered’ former student’s detention, judge says
-
Fast Forward ‘Honey, he’s had enough of you’: Trump’s Middle East moves increasingly appear to sideline Israel
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.