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Marell 4, 1998

A Crusading Spirit

The ADEs Abe Foxman, a fiery voice for tolerance,
is lecturing in Detroit next week.

doesn't come quick. Nor is it simple
when it does.
Ideas promulgated by neo-Nazi
groups
and even militias, which he
be Foxman is willing to
says are not inherently anti-Semitic,
concede that hatred is a fact
undermine democracy by fomenting a
of human existence.
suspicion of the legitimate govern-
As a recent graduate of
ment. And democracy, he notes, is a
the law school at New York University,
shield
against outright persecution.
he fervently believed that prejudice
The
ADL has always tracked such
could be overcome when people
"hate"
groups,
but now is striking out
learned to love each other. That was
into
new
territory
— the Internet —
over 30 years ago.
where these ideas can be disseminated
"I will be satisfied," he said, "if we
to millions of people. Among its other
can get people to tolerate each other.
responses, the ADL is working on
If, after Auschwitz, we did not muster
developing filters that would screen
all our scientists, engineers, philoso-
out such information.
phers to develop that antidote [to
The Far Right, Christian fundamen-
hatred], if we didn't come up with an
talists who would break
antidote, we won't. What's
down the barriers
left is to keep a lid on it."
between church and state
Exposing the evils of
by incorporating religious
anti-Semitism and preju-
instruction and prayer
dice is the path which the
into the schools, is also a
Anti-Defamation. League
threat to the well-being of
has taken in its 85-year
American
Jews, according
history as a bulwark
to
Foxman.
against the forces of hate.
Then there's what
Foxman, as national direc-
Foxman calls "crude
tor of the organization,
anti-Semitism." He men-
believes education is the
tions the 1991 racial
most powerful tool to
clash in Crown Heights
undermine ideas that can
that resulted in the stab-
lead to the persecution of
bing death of Yankel
Forman:
Abraham H.
Jews, blacks and other
Rosenbaum and the
nswers
to
anti-
No
quick
a
minorities.
March 1994 drive-by
Semitism.
"Time and again, the
shooting of a busload of
only thing we can point to
is that the higher level of education, of yeshiva students in New York that left
16-year-old Aaron Halberstam dead.
people being open, the lower the level
"Yankel Rosenbaum died because
of bigotry and prejudice.
he
was identifiably Jewish, not because
"You need consequences, that
he
was Australian, living in Brooklyn.
there's a price to be paid first in terms
When
kids on the Brooklyn Bridge
concern
with
Our
of social standing.
were attacked, it was because they
Farrakhan is his effort to legitimize
were identifiably Jewish," he noted.
[anti-Semitism]. [But] thank God, if
Both victims were Chasidic.
you are labeled an anti-Semite and
The ADL responded to the inci-
racist, it's still a negative," Foxman
dent
by doing peer training in high
said.
schools.
It also helped form a group
At 7:30 p.m. next Thursday, March
called
Mothers
to Mothers, which
5, Foxman will bring his message to
brings
together
members of the black
the Kahn Jewish Community Center
and Chasidic communities to talk
in West Bloomfield as part of the
about issues of common concern.
JCC's Hot Topics series. His topic:
"America is unique. We have been
"Keeping Watch and Taking Action."
able
to educate and keep [anti-
The lecture is free.
Semitism]
in check, but I don't go to
Surely, Foxman is asked often what
sleep
one
night
believing it's not
presents the greatest threat to
there,"
he
said.
El
American Jews today. But his answer

JULIE EDGAR
News Editor

A

