Boston Globe, MA
Aug 17 2007
Local chapter breaks with ADL position
Armenian genocide at issue
By Keith O’Brien, Globe Staff | August 17, 2007
The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League broke ranks with its
national leadership yesterday amid growing outrage by area Jewish
leaders over the ADL’s refusal to acknowledge the World War I-era
mass killings of Armenians as genocide.
In an emergency meeting yesterday afternoon, the regional ADL board
adopted resolutions calling on the national organization, which has
refused to recognize the Armenian genocide, to change its policy,
according to a source familiar with the proposal.
Also, Andrew H. Tarsy, the ADL’s New England regional director who
had defended the ADL’s position as recently as Tuesday, reversed
course, saying the ADL should acknowledge the genocide.
"I strongly disagree with ADL’s national position," Tarsy said in an
interview with the Globe, declining to explain his change of stance.
"It’s my strong hope that we’ll be able to move forward in a
relationship with the Armenian community and the community in
general."
The developments were the latest turn in a national debate that began
weeks ago in Watertown, home to more than 8,000 Armenian-Americans.
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Response to New England Community
Some residents were upset to learn that the ADL was the sponsor of
the town’s antibigotry program "No Place For Hate." Many began
calling for Watertown to pull out because the ADL refused to
acknowledge the genocide.
On Tuesday, the Watertown Town Council voted unanimously to rescind
its relationship with No Place For Hate. And by yesterday, residents
in Newton, Belmont, Somerville, and Arlington were rethinking the
program, and local Jewish leaders were renouncing the ADL’s stand.
ADL leaders agree that Armenians were massacred by Ottomon Turks
during World War I. The ongoing debate focuses on the Armenian stance
that what happened was genocide and the ADL’s refusal to acknowledge
that.
A resolution pending in Congress would formally recognize the deaths
as genocide. The ADL’s national director, Abraham H. Foxman, has said
that the human rights organization has no position on the issue. But
he has also questioned whether what happened was genocide and said he
believes that Congress should not be considering the matter.
The board of the regional ADL refused to release the text of the
resolutions it adopted yesterday, in deference, one source said, to
the national organization. The board would not comment further. James
Rudolph, the regional board chairman, said he may be able to say more
today, when he expects to hear back from the national office. Foxman
did not return a call seeking comment.
But Tarsy’s remarks made clear that the regional arm of the ADL was
prepared to part ways with the national office on the issue of
Armenian genocide, a move welcomed by the leader of the Armenian
National Committee, based in Washington, D.C.
"It’s a positive move," said Aram Hamparian, executive director of
the Armenian National Committee. "It’s the New England ADL trying to
bring the national ADL over to the right side of the issue."
>From 1915 to 1923, Ottoman Turks massacred as many as 1.5 million
Armenians in what is now modern-day Turkey. Armenians, historians,
and some European nations have recognized the killings as genocide.
But the Turkish government has refused to accept the genocide label.
And some Middle East specialists suggest that the national ADL, a
group founded in 1913 to fight anti-Semitism, may be refusing to
acknowledge the Armenian genocide under pressure from Turkey, a rare
Muslim ally to Israel.
"Why are they taking this position? Because they’re being pressured
to," said James Russell, the Mashtots professor of Armenian studies
at Harvard University. "Because Israel is in a very dangerous
neighborhood and Turkey, at the moment, is a friend and military
ally."
Such politics, once international, became local this summer when
Watertown residents realized that the ADL sponsored the town’s "No
Place For Hate" program, which is dedicated to challenging bigotry.
The program was positive, most agreed. Under the program, communities
organize diversity days and other events focused on challenging
bigotry, and after a year they receive placards to be posted,
declaring the community as "No Place For Hate."
The debate quickly became about something bigger, hurting the
reputation of an organization that has spoken out against Holocaust
denial, ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and genocide in Darfur.
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Response to New England Community
"I’m a longtime supporter of the ADL, and I think the work the
organization has done has often been stellar," said Rabbi Ronne
Friedman, senior rabbi of Boston’s largest synagogue, Temple Israel.
"But I’m really saddened that Abe Foxman, the national director, has
failed to affirm the historical fact of this genocide, and I really
think that failure represents a moral myopia."
Friedman said he spoke about this issue during services last week and
urged his congregation to reach out to Armenian-Americans and let
them know that many Jews stand with them.
Jews, being victims of Adolf Hitler’s genocide plan, should
understand the importance of this issue, Friedman said.
"Hitler referenced the Armenian genocide as proof that the Germans
could move forward with impunity in the defamation of the Polish
population, men, women and children," Friedman said. "So the idea
that we’d fail to recognize historical fact and fail to ensure that
the Armenian-American community is affirmed and supported in its
quest for justice and truth — I think that’s terribly unfortunate."
Officials in other "No Place For Hate" Massachusetts towns were
rethinking their involvement in the program. In Newton, officials
were drafting a letter demanding that the ADL change its position.
"We’re incredulous," Marianne Ferguson, chairwoman of Newton’s Human
Rights Commission, said of Foxman’s refusal to characterize the
Armenian massacre as genocide. "To try and come to understand how
they came to this conclusion . . . it’s mind-boggling."