The Boston Globe
Newton urged to cut ties to ADL program

By Christina Pazzanese, Globe Correspondent | September 12, 2007

In a move designed to prompt action by the Anti-Defamation League, the
Newton Human Rights Commission voted unanimously last night to urge
Mayor David B. Cohen to immediately cease the city’s long-standing
participation in No Place for Hate, an antidiscrimination program
cosponsored by the league.

Cohen said the ADL’s failure to make a stronger statement in support
of the genocide recognition "is itself an injustice." He said after
the meeting he anticipated deciding within days about the program’s
future in Newton, which he said is home to the largest Jewish
population in the state.

The commission said it would consider resuming the program if the
ADL’s national leadership "fully and unequivocally" recognizes the
murder of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915 to 1923 as a genocide and
actively supports congressional legislation acknowledging the event as
genocide.

"We need to do something to send a message," said commission member,
Sona Petrossian.

"This is really the most important issue that’s confronted us," said
Muriel Esdale, a 15-year veteran of the commission.

Before nearly 100 people at City Hall, the commission heard from
dozens of residents from Newton, Needham, Cambridge, and Watertown,
many of whom said that by severing ties with the program, Newton would
send a strong message in advance of the league’s national board
meeting Nov. 1 that has the genocide issue on the agenda.

"Newton doesn’t need the ADL and the No Place for Hate community,"
said Salpi Sarafian, an audience members who spoke. "It’s a great
program, but Newton can do it on its own."

"The ADL’s verbal gymnastics show bad faith," said resident David
Boyajian, whose July 6 letter to a Watertown newspaper about the issue
led to the town’s Aug. 15 withdrawal from the program.

Last month, both the commission and Cohen sent letters to Abraham
Foxman, the ADL’s executive director, expressing disappointment over
the firing of Andrew H. Tarsy.

Tarsy, regional director of the ADL’s New England chapter, had
publicly veered from the league’s formal position as well as comments
by Foxman that called the slaughter only "tantamount" to genocide.

After an outcry, Foxman officially acknowledged the genocide of
Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks, and Tarsy was rehired on Aug.
27.

David Appel, one of several members of the ADL’s national board in
attendance last night, said many of his colleagues were not aware of
the league’s position on the Armenian genocide until the Watertown
Town Council voted to withdraw from No Place for Hate. He said that
while many of the colleagues he has talked to do not agree with the
league’s official position, pulling out of the program only hurts
diversity education efforts.

"This program is for students and parents in the community," he said.
"Why should we sever that?"

(c) Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Source: icles/2007/09/12/newton_urged_to_cut_ties_to_adl_p rogram/