No place for ADL in Newton
By Chrissie Long
GateHouse News Service
New! Tue Sep 18, 2007, 05:58 PM EDT
Newton –
Mayor David Cohen has ended an eight-year relationship with the
Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate program.
In keeping with the recommendation of the city’s Human Rights
Commission, Cohen said in a statement released Tuesday that the
national ADL should change its policy and fully recognize the Armenian
Genocide, before Newton can rejoin the tolerance-promoting campaign.
Newton becomes the third community – after Watertown and Belmont – to
withdraw from No Place for Hate.
"For me, this is a matter of conscience," Cohen said in a phone
interview. "People of conscience need to stand up and acknowledge the
historic fact of genocide. My hope is that national ADL will follow
the regional ADL and change its policy on the Armenian Genocide."
Choosing their words carefully, members of the Human Rights Commission
decided Sept. 12 that the best response to the Anti-Defamation
League’s position was to "cease participation" with No Place for Hate
until the national ADL fully and unequivocally recognizes the Armenian
Genocide and actively support congressional legislation which would do
the same.
During that emotionally charged meeting in the cafeteria of City Hall,
members of the Armenian-American community pleaded with commissioners
to follow the lead of Watertown and sever ties with ADL.
"We have been waiting for the recognition of our history all our
lives," said Cambridge resident Alik Arzoumanian, with tears forming
in her eyes. "[After 92 years of waiting,] I don’t want to give ADL
and No Place for Hate one more day … I am hurt and I am offended. We
have to [send] this symbolic message in severing ties."
Newton resident David Boyajian, who exposed the ADL’s controversial
position in a letter to the Watertown TAB & Press in July, said that
withdrawing from No Place for Hate is the best way to influence the
national ADL.
"[Newton’s decision] is a great loss for National ADL," Boyajian said
Tuesday. "I think it will push them in the right direction. [Mayor
David Cohen’s statement] is a step forward for genocide awareness and
prevention."
Only four Newton residents spoke in favor of remaining a member of No
Place for Hate – all four are representatives of ADL. They asked
commissioners to wait for them to discuss the issue with the national
ADL at their annual meeting Nov. 1.
Gerry Tishler, who co-founded No Place for Hate with the late ADL New
England leader and Newton resident Lenny Zakim, agreed that the
Armenian Genocide should be recognized for what it is, but he didn’t
want Newton to leave No Place for Hate.
"If you drop No Place for Hate, or even if you make it conditional
upon the outcome of this vote in November, you are throwing the baby
out with the bathwater. You are making a bad mistake," said the
35-year Newton resident. "We have added so much to your communities to
assist you in combating hatred. Don’t reject us now."
Newton resident Lori Ganz, who also serves as an ADL commissioner,
said that the city could best help the national organization change
>From within, if it remained a member.
"Change happens by those who show up," she said. "Those who walk away
don’t have influence. We ask you to be our partners. Don’t leave us
alone to fight this [battle.]"
Members of the Human Rights Commission stressed that Newton will
remain an anti-hate community, even though they will not operate under
an organization that rejected one of the greatest hate crimes in
history.
"You must stand up for everyone," said Sona Petrossian, human rights
commissioner. "When you stand up to injustice, you can’t pick the
people you stand up for. We sit under the umbrella for No Place for
Hate: Do we as commissioners and advisory board members feel
comfortable staying under that umbrella when it has been tarnished
with this issue?"
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913 to secure justice and fair
treatment to all citizens, has yet to unequivocally recognize the
Armenian Genocide and to support congressional legislation conceding
that the mass killings was a genocide.
Instead, National Director Abraham Foxman has called the massacres
only "tantamount to genocide" and continued to oppose congressional
legislation acknowledging it.
In a column published in the Jerusalem Post last week, Foxman wrote
that he "understood the passion behind [the appeals to recognize the
genocide], but I was frustrated and disheartened that these critics
were not taking seriously the dilemma we faced."
"For us, there were competing moral principles at work," he wrote.
"The security and well-being of Jews everywhere in the world is a
priority for ADL. In this case, it was listening to the views of the
leaders of the Turkish Jewish community, a community that lives well
in Turkey but is still a small community of 20,000 in a country of 65
million Muslims. A guiding principle for ADL is that when Jewish
communities around the world appeal to us on matters that may have an
impact on their lives, we don’t act as if we know better. We pay
attention."
But this week’s efforts in Newton and Belmont – with both Wellesley
and Needham considering similar moves – may force Foxman’s further
attention here as well.
"We have a moral obligation to witness and to record injustice," said
Newton South teacher Viviana Planine. "Politics should not enter into
it. This is a human rights issue; politics should stay out of it."
Chrissie Long can be reached at [email protected].
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