Free Republic

Abraham Foxman, the amiably chatty director of the Jewish civil rights group, the Anti-Defamation League, has a story to tell about his friend, the 78-year-old multi-billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. Adelson, who is America's eighth richest man and has given millions of dollars in support of Newt Gingrich's presidential bid, was having dinner with Foxman in Las Vegas several years ago. Foxman let slip that he was having to miss an invitation to the White House from the then president, George W. Bush. Foxman explained it was impossible to get a commercial flight. Adelson replied: "If the president of the...

HOMELAND INSECURITY Concern about rise of Islam is bigotry? Counter-terror specialist challenges ADL chief's slam of Pat Robertson

Several Jewish groups are criticizing Sarah Palin's use of the controversial term "blood libel" in her video statement on the Arizona shootings. The phrase has traditionally been used to refer to anti-Semitic and false myths about Jews using the blood of Christians, often children, in their rituals. Abraham Foxman, who heads the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement: It is unfortunate that the tragedy in Tucson continues to stimulate a political blame game.  Rather than step back and reflect on the lessons to be learned from this tragedy, both parties have reverted to political partisanship and finger-pointing at a time...

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Louis Farrakhan blamed the Jews, among others, for President Obama's difficulties. In a 3 1/2-hour speech marking Saviours' Day, a Nation of Islam holiday, the movement's leader told 20,000 followers in Chicago's United Center that Obama's political difficulties came after he stood up to the Jewish lobby at an Oval Office meeting. "When they left the White House, his problems began," the Chicago Sun-Times quoted Farrakhan as saying. Obama's meeting last summer with leaders of Jewish groups was mostly friendly, but there were differences over his administration's tone in dealing with Israel's Netanyahu government. All sides since...

New York, NY, January 19, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said that the visit to the Rome Synagogue by Pope Benedict XVI "acknowledged the validity of Judaism and affirmed the Catholic-Jewish relationship." Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement: Pope Benedict acknowledged the validity of Judaism and affirmed the Catholic-Jewish relationship by his visit to Rome's main synagogue. Like his predecessor Pope John Paul II, whose 1986 visit to the same Rome Synagogue was a message to the Christian world that Judaism was not superseded by Christianity and is a living dynamic religion with its own...

Just when you thought the Anti-Defamation League couldn't conceivably get any worse, comes the news that the ADL has effectively joined the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to bash Dennis Prager, a popular Jewish author, speaker and talk show host. In a November 29th column, posted at Townhall.com, Prager criticized Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the first Muslim elected to Congress, for declaring he'll bring the Koran with him to his swearing-in ceremony. Prager's calls this "the narcissism of multiculturalism." The author of several best-selling books on Judaism and a member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, Prager notes that...

Mel Gibson's Apology OK With Catholic League Monday, July 31, 2006 3:51 p.m. EDT Catholic League President Bill Donohue commented today on the furor over the comments Mel Gibson allegedly made after his arrest for drunk driving Friday morning: "What Mel Gibson apparently said is indefensible. The remark attributed to him, ‘The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,’ is anti-Semitic and irresponsible. Fortunately, he has apologized for his bigoted outburst. "Unfortunately, his apology is being rejected by some who should know better. To wit: Abraham Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, has branded Gibson’s apology ‘unremorseful...

Last week (March 27-28), Vision America convened a War On Christians conference in Washington, D.C. It was the first to address escalating attacks on Christians from Hollywood, the news media, academia, the courts, and activist groups like the ACLU and Anti-Defamation League. Speakers included scholars, authors, clergy (among them an Orthodox rabbi), lawyers and members of Congress. Delegates came from as far away as South Africa. I was the conference coordinator, as well as a speaker on two panels ("Jews Confront the War On Christians" and "Hollywood: Christians Through a Distorted Lens"). You will be shocked – shocked! – to...

A group of reputed Jewish leaders met in New York last week to devise a strategy to deal with what kosher Chicken Littles like the Anti-Defamation League’s Abraham Foxman see as the emerging threat of the Religious Right. If Christian conservatives are the menace Foxman and Friends believe, the problem is much worse than they imagine. According to a late November FOX News poll, most Americans are what Foxman and Reform Jewish leader Eric Yoffie would call a clear and present danger to democracy and pluralism. To wit: 59 percent of Americans think Christianity is under attack here; 81 percent...

Liberals are feeling their oats these days. The president’s poll ratings are down. Support for the Iraq war has eroded. Democrats in Congress are on the offensive charging the White House with misleading the country into war. An aide to the Vice President has been indicted, Congressman Tom DeLay is also facing charges, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is under the spotlight for stock transactions by his blind trust. It is, in other words, a perfect storm of opportunity for the left, which must also mean that it is time for leaders of major Jewish organizations on the political...

Anyone who took offense at Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ", with its depiction of Jewish leaders condemning Jesus, should get ready soon to be offended all over again. Gibson, it is reported, has his heart set on doing a movie version of the story commemorated by Hanukkah. His text will be the novel "My Glorious Brothers" by Howard Fast. Ironically, this book is a sentimental favorite with the older-generation Jewish audience that also tends to be the main financial supporter of Gibson’s primary antagonist, the Anti-Defamation League, which led the drive to condemn "The Passion" as anti-Semitic. The...

Abraham H. Foxman sat in his office suite with its expensive United Nations view, wondering when the WNBC camera crew would get there. The afternoon would soon be spent: It was Friday, and the national director of the Anti-Defamation League was ending phone calls with the words "Shabbat Shalom." The next day he was jetting to Rome, where he would appeal to Vatican officials to do something about that whatshisname and his movie. The Passion of the Christ, the film that cost Mel Gibson $30 million of his own money, already had civic and religious leaders lunging for the microphone....

Shas chairman MK Eli Yishai on Wednesday called for Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" movie to be banned from Israeli cinemas, calling it a blood libel. In the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League issued a statement saying that the film "repeats all of the stereotypes and myths surrounding the death of Jesus that have accompanied anti-Semitism for the last 2,000 years. Regretfully, Gibson refused all of our attempts for a dialogue aimed at preventing this harm to Jews." ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said he was troubled by Gibson's claim of historical accuracy. "He made his choice," Foxman told...

Jewish leaders continue to decry Mel Gibson’s forthcoming Jesus movie for supposedly threatening to whip up anti-Semitism. Due out next April, "The Passion" identifies Jewish priests as instigators of the crucifixion. Maimonides, too, in his Mishnah Torah, affirms Jewish involvement in Jesus’ execution — which must make the greatest of medieval Jewish sages an anti-Semite, too. But the film I’d like to see produced that would really make some Jews nervous, while teaching a healthy lesson: an honest depiction not of Jesus’ death, but of his preaching. The Christian Bible makes clear what was probably the main theme of his...