Remembering Abe Foxman, a Leader & Warrior against Antisemitism

Yesterday we lost a devoted, loyal and staunch advocate of the Jewish people, Abe Foxman (of Blessed Memory) who passed away at the age of 86. Abe was a prominent American lawyer and activist, in which he was the longtime national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Foxman served as the national director of the ADL from 1987 to 2015. Under his leadership, the organization transformed into a major global force against antisemitism and other forms of bigotry. He was an influential advisor to several US presidents and world leaders. While focused on Jewish security, Foxman also advocated for broader civil rights, including immigrant and minority rights, and developed anti-bias educational programs for schools. Born in 1940 in what is now Belarus, Foxman survived the Holocaust as a “hidden child”. He was saved by his Polish Catholic nanny, who baptized and raised him as a Catholic until he was reunited with his parents after the war. He moved to the United States with his parents in 1950 and earned a law degree from New York University School of Law and joined the ADL in 1965 as a legal assistant.

I met Abe a few years ago after he gave a speech at the 5th Ave Synagogue on NYC’s upper east side and had him sign 2 books that he wrote that I cherish and keep in my personal library. The first book is called “Jews and Money”(published in 2010 by Palgrave Macmillan), in which the book examines the cultural and political history of the damaging assumptions made about Jews and their relationship with wealth. Foxman traces these prejudices from biblical times to the modern era, identifying them as a primary pillar of Western antisemitism alongside the “deicide” charge. The book explores various conflicting myths, such as Jews being portrayed simultaneously as “greedy global capitalists” and “wealthy secret communists”. Foxman wrote the book partly in response to the 2008 financial crisis and the Bernie Madoff scandal, which he argued “fanned the flames” of ancient hatreds. He advocates for education and cultural pride as tools to dismantle these stereotypes, warning that the internet has given “everyone a megaphone” to spread harmful rhetoric. As with all forms of bigotry, society at large needs to respond to the persistence of stereotypes by educating the young, denouncing hate speech, and by encouraging Jews, like all groups, to express pride in their ethnic and religious heritage.

The second book that I had Abe sign was “The Deadliest Lies: The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control”. Foxman’s work on this book serves primarily as a rebuttal to John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s controversial 2007 book, The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. In the book, Foxman argues that the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the US is vastly exaggerated. He contends that the idea of a mythically powerful “Jewish lobby” controlling US policy is a modern repackaging of centuries-old antisemitic canards about “Jewish control”. The book addresses accusations of “double loyalty,” where American Jews are blamed for advocating policies that supposedly favor Israel over the United States. Foxman challenges the credibility of public figures like former President Jimmy Carter, arguing that their criticisms of Israel—such as those found in Carter’s Palestine Peace or Apartheid—are misleading and dangerous.

As I said goodbye to Mr Foxman after the Event, I found it very moving and sentimental to have met him on “Yom Hashoah”, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Abe was a child Holocaust survivor who became a world-renowned leader in the fight against antisemitism. Born in 1940 in what is now Belarus, Foxman was saved as an infant when his parents entrusted him to a Polish Catholic nanny, Bronislawa Kurpi. She baptized him and raised him as a Catholic to hide his Jewish identity from the Nazis. While he was miraculously reunited with his parents after the war in 1944, 14 members of his family were murdered during the Holocaust. The family lived in a displaced persons camp in Austria before immigrating to the United States in 1950, where they settled in New York. As we embraced and I thanked him for signing his 2 classic books, I conveyed that I greatly appreciated him telling us his life story and that we should teach future generations to never forget the lessons of the past. May Abe Foxman’s Memory be a Blessing and thank you for the tremendous work that you did in your lifetime.