Success...sort of. Just moments ago, Abraham Foxman, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League, publicly reversed course on the issue of the Armenian Genocide and acknowledged that the crimes of the Ottoman Turks were indeed a genocide.
Just yesterday, I diaried about the brewing storm over the issue, as Boston-area ADL leaders bucked the national office and demanded that the Armenian Genocide be recognized as fact. Turkish leaders, cashing in on their nation being a rare Muslim ally of Israel, had lobbied American Jewish leaders to fight a pending Congressional resolution to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, which Turkey vehemently denies to this day.
While acknowledging the Genocide, Foxman still took aim at the pending legislation, which we will look at after the flip.
Yesterday, in the wake of the firing of Andrew Tarsy, the now-former head of the New England ADL who acknowledged the Armenian Genocide, Boston-area Jewish groups dialed up the pressure on the ADL:
Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, e-mailed a letter yesterday to some 40 prominent Jewish leaders in Massachusetts, asking them to support the ousted director and to recognize the genocide against Armenians.
[...]
"I have never gotten such unanimous support for any position by the JCRC as I have in the last few days on this one," Kaufman said. "It doesn't matter where people are on the political spectrum -- left, right, middle -- people are really standing behind this because it strikes at the core of what it means to be a Jew and never again means never again."
From the ADL's statement:
On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr. that the consequences of those actions were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide.
I have consulted with my friend and mentor Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and other respected historians who acknowledge this consensus. I hope that Turkey will understand that it is Turkey's friends who urge that nation to confront its past and work to reconcile with Armenians over this dark chapter in history.
Having said that, we continue to firmly believe that a Congressional resolution on such matters is a counterproductive diversion and will not foster reconciliation between Turks and Armenians and may put at risk the Turkish Jewish community and the important multilateral relationship between Turkey, Israel and the United States.
This is overall a very positive development, but the last paragraph still disappoints me greatly. Mr. Foxman would never take such a stance on commemoration of the Holocaust. That he does so against commemoration of the Armenian Genocide still shows me that his integrity is for sale. Still, recognizing the Genocide is a very important first step.
The willingness of Andrew Tarsy to stand up to Mr. Foxman's denial of history and to sacrifice his job as a result is something that should not soon be forgotten. Mr. Tarsy is a mensch in every sense of the word.
On the web:
My Diary: Abe Foxman Must Go
My Diary: Profiles in Courage: Andrew Tarsy, Stewart Cohen, and Mike Ross
ADL: Statement on the Armenian Genocide
Boston Globe: Local chapter breaks with ADL position
Boston Globe: ADL local leader fired on Armenian issue
Boston Globe: 2 members of regional ADL board quit
Boston Globe: Jewish groups pressure the ADL
Boston Globe: ADL reverses course, recognizes Armenian genocide