Media Monitor

Tiff Between New
Republic and ADL

ARTHUR J. MAGMA SENIOR WRITER

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aloney" was the reac-
tion of Abe Foxman,
Anti-Defamation
League executive di-
rector, to a New Republic ar-
ticle that claims an ADL
study on anti-Semitism dis-
torted the level of anti-Jew-
ish sentiment in the U.S.
The article by J.J. Gold-
berg, the Jerusalem Report's
New York correspondent,
charged that the study's in-
terpretation was "alarmist"
because it glossed over the
fact that anti-Semitism had
declined, while stressing that
U.S. Jews' perception that
anti-Semitism "is a serious
problem in America today"
had nearly doubled between
1983 and 1990.
Mr. Goldberg states that
ADL's interpretation sprang
from "the organized Jewish
corrununity['s]... position that
you can't be too vigilant. Ex-
pose anti-Semites and they
will fade away; leave them be
and they will fester in the
dark."
"J.J. is entitled to his views
and his biases," said Mr. Fox-
man, "and those that don't fit
into reality, he discards. An
eight percent drop in anti-
Semitism would be signifi-
cant, but the numbers of the
surrounding events were even
more significant."
Mr. Foxman was referring
particularly to the aura of le-
gitimacy that such right-wing
bigots as David Duke and Pat
Buchanan had attained at the
polls.
He also rebutted Mr. Gold-
berg's claim that "too much
vigilance [regarding anti-
Semitism] will lead to isola-
tion ... The very term has
become a weapon. Overused,
it can breed the resentment it
is meant to expose."
"Examine the record," de-
manded Mr. Foxman. "ADL
and Foxman, said [President]
Bush wasn't anti-Semitic.
ADL and Foxman said the
[Jonathan] Pollard case
wasn't anti-Semitic. We are
concerned about our credibil-
ity. I don't do this because I
worry about our coalition
partners. I recently said that
Bill Tatum [editor of the Am-
sterdam News in New York]
was anti-Semitic because his
last three editorials charged
that Jews were infiltrating
the churches. J.J. might say
I'm alienating blacks by do-
ing this."

Abe Foxman: "Baloney."

Reached in New York, Mr.
Goldberg said, "I don't want
to underestimate the threat
from such people as Pat
Buchanan and David Duke."
111
New Republic editors, he
said, had cut a section from -
his article in which he said
that Mr. Buchanan and Mr.
Duke had both "tried to hide
their anti-Semitism. But they
regard Jews as people they
have little use for."
As for ADL's drumbeat of
"eternal vigilance," he said he
was surprised by a story he
has just finished writing for
Jerusalem Report about
blacks' attitudes toward
black-Jewish relations.
"I had expected apathy," he
said. "Instead, they said that
blacks and Jews used to be a
great team. Their greatest
fear was being labeled 'anti-
Semitic.' They think the term
is overused."

Threat
Remains

The threat in Russia to Jews
has lessened, but it is no less
deadly or insidious.
That's, the conclusion of
"Peter Brodsky," the pseudo-
nym of a Chicago-based pub-
lisher who travels often to
Russia.
In Commentary, Mr. Brod-
sky warns that if "Russia
truly 'unravels,' there will be
some who will energetically
claim that the Jews are de-
stroying the country."
The article, of course, was
written before Mr. Yeltsin's
victory in the referendum