Jewcy Protests Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman at the 92nd Street Y

What's so ridiculous is that after recognizing the genocide publically, Foxman turned around and unrecognized it when talking to Turkish leaders. His quote to them said that while independent scholars have come to the conclusion that it was genocide, there's still room for more work. He also basically groveled to the Turkish leaders for having upset them while his attitude towards Armenian groups was 'tantimount' to disdain. He made it clear he cares not an iota for Armenians or their ancestors and was only calling it genocide for the sake of Jewish unity. The way he has behaved has been downright insulting.
This is a sadly un-reported side to the story. All I see are articles now saying Foxman recognized it, but don't seem to know about what really happened after the "recognition" and I wish the press would sit up and take notice. Foxman can't be let off this easily.

In 2006, Foxman whitewashed his left-wing Democratic friends at MoveOn.org after MoveOn's Action Forum was overrun (with MoveOn's approval) anti-Semitic and other forms of hate speech.

 Then Foxman called Big Brother, a TV reality show, "antisemitic" because a participant made a couple of remarks about Jews. The remarks were infinitely less vicious than the ones made in earnest at MoveOn.

 Next, Foxman tried to sandbag Congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide, a wrong-sided and losing action that forced him to acknowledge the genocide. The latter resulted in a diplomatic confrontation between Turkey and Israel, with Turkey blaming Israel for the ADL's recognition of the genocide. Now Foxman has the worst of both worlds: the diplomatic problems he wanted to avoid by sandbagging the Armenians, plus the total destruction of ADL's credibility.

 ADL also has yet to reinstate Andrew Tarsy with an apology. Until this happens, no one should give ADL one thin dime of support. ADL may have stood for something long ago but, on Foxman's watch, it is no better than a political prostitute. And by all appearances, Foxman is the political pimp who sells ADL's prestige and credibility the way a real pimp sells a woman's body.

Thank you...on behalf of my grandparents who were massacred by the Turks...your support is appreciated....

We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome one day.

GENOCIDE: TAKE A SIDE
Rabbis Eric Yoffie and David Saperstein

New York Jewish Week
http://www.thejewishweek.com/top/editletcontent.php3?artid=6220
Aug 30 2007

A recent split in the American Jewish community found the
Anti-Defamation League under pressure from fellow Jews as well as
the Armenian-American community over its reticence to use of the term
"genocide" to describe the violence against the Armenians in 1915-17.

We praise the ADL's decision this week to join the global consensus
in using the term genocide. But we are disappointed that the ADL
affirmed its opposition to a congressional resolution commemorating
the Armenian genocide.

One would think such a bill would sail through. That the 1915-1917
slaughter and displacement of Armenians by Ottoman Turkey was the
first genocide of the 20th century (long before the word "genocide"
was coined) and an instance of the ethnic cleansing that so blotted
the remainder of the century - all this has long been accepted by
most historians.

And one would surely be safe to suppose that the American Jewish
community would be among the most vocal supporters of such a
resolution. Yet instead, it has been nearly silent on the matter;
many of the organizations most identified with advocating our communal
agenda have either been silent or announced their abstention.

Why should this be so? Do Jews read the troubling history
differently? Hardly. Much as the Turkish government and its lobbyists
would like others to believe the historical foundation just isn't
there, the silence of the Jewish organizations has almost nothing to
do with history. It is not what Jews know about Ottoman Turkey but
what they feel about modern Turkey now that shapes their response.

The Jewish community is deeply appreciative of Turkey on two counts:
First, Turkey has long been a voice of Muslim moderation, tolerance
and pluralism, a vital bridge between the West and the Muslim world.

Second, Turkey has been the Muslim country closest to Israel, with
economic, political and military cooperation that Israel and its
supporters hope will be a model for other Muslim nations. The last
thing that the U.S., Israel, or the Jewish community desires is to
offend Turkey at this critical moment.

Those are very real considerations. But the silence of America's Jews,
intended as an act of friendship and appreciation, serves neither
the Turks nor the Jews. In the real world, that silence is heard
as avoidance and evasion; it offers a stamp of approval to those
who deny the claims of history - and that is something the Jewish
community cannot, must not, allow.

For more than 30 years, the American Jewish community has appropriately
done everything within its power to bring knowledge of the Holocaust
into public consciousness. We have argued that to ignore or deny the
Holocaust is to rob the Jewish people of their history and to dishonor
the memory of the victims. How can the very groups that have led the
effort to ensure that our genocide will never be forgotten now turn
their backs on the genocidal tragedies of others?

In 1989, at the biennial convention of the Union for Reform
Judaism, thousands of Reform Jewish leaders debated this issue and
overwhelmingly endorsed the congressional resolution that establishing
April 24 as the Day of Remembrance for the Armenian Genocide. The
historical record and the role played by one of the first great Jewish
diplomats, Henry Morgenthau Sr., in bringing these genocidal actions
to the attention of the American government and to the world weighed
heavily in their deliberations.

Then America's ambassador to Turkey, Morgenthau famously sent a cable
to the State Department on July 10, 1915: "Persecution of Armenians
assuming unprecedented proportions ... systematic attempt to uproot
peaceful Armenian population and through arbitrary arrests, terrible
tortures, whole-sale expulsions, and deportations from one end of the
Empire to the other accompanied by frequent instances of rape, pillage
and murder, turning into massacre, to bring destruction and destitution
on them. These measures are ... directed from Constantinople...." On
Aug. 11, his cable described the Turkish actions as "an effort to
exterminate a race."

Modern Turkey is hardly the only nation with a sordid chapter in
its past: South Africa had apartheid; Germany had the Holocaust;
England had the slave trade; the U.S. had slavery, segregation and the
mistreatment of Native Americans. And, more recently, Cambodia and
Rwanda. Yet in each of these, there's been an effort at cleansing
- cleansing not by erasing the past but by confronting it. Such
confrontation is a sign of a nation's strength, not its weakness;
it begets respect, not disdain.

The Armenian genocide was long ago, but as long as Turkey denies it,
it will never be far away. No one doubts that Turkey, since Ataturk,
is very different from what it was in late Ottoman times. Its many
friends wish it well and pray that it will at long last have the
fortitude to look unblinkingly at its yesterday, thereby immeasurably
enriching its tomorrow. n

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, left, is the president of the Union for Reform
Judaism. Rabbi David Saperstein is the director of the Religious
Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Cool. Thanks for the article Phantom

My beloved Jew friends,

1st As an Armenian, I want to thank you all for showing support and giving a positive push to our cause.

2nd, i want to share the following with you all...

someone previously wrote on this website, in one of the discussion, that "A Genocide or a Holocaust, no matter who the victims are, is very bad ..." i was really impressed by this ... and indeed all genocides/holocausts must be recognized in order for the world to be a better place .. and in order to put an end to further massacres/genocides/holocausts

Maybe some of you already know, but i want to reveal one of the reasons/inspirations behind the Jewish holocaust/Ha-Shoah (השואה) ...

In fact, Adolf Hitler always had the Armenian Genocide in his mind and how no one ever recognized it :( and based on that he made lots of descisions...
The Armenian Genocide is often speculated to have influenced Adolf Hitler, owing to his various references to the Ottoman killings of Armenians.

some of his famous quotes:
- "... Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"
- "Everywhere people are awaiting a new world order. We intend to introduce a great resettlement policy...remember the extermination of the Armenians."
- "... who now lead a pitiful existence as Armenians."

you can check this on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide under the title: "Influence of the Armenian Genocide on Adolf Hitler"

So ignoring/denying massacres will encourage, at some level, new leaders to repeat the experience with new victims...

When will mankind stand witness to its own crimes and mean when they say "never again" .... ????

thanks for participating

I wish I could join you, but I'm up in Montreal.  All the best!

It sure knows how to attract a lot of attention.

One of the early 00's biggest corporate frauds involving AT&T and Citigroup involved the 92nd Y as well.

How kum dis artikl is getting more talkbax dan my artikl

What a fun and productive time we all had.  At the very least I think we got a lot more attention than the talk itself.  I guess the verdict will be in tomorrow morning if/when we get in the papers.

--Z

We thank Jewcy for support on the Armenian Genocide. Foxmans problem is that he thinks the Jews of Istanbul will be indanger. If that happens, then Turkey will never be allowed into the European Union. Does Foxman know that the Armenians in Istabul whom number 60,000+ have been harrassed for years. Also, has Foxman forgot about the 1955 riots in Istanbul where Jewish, Greek & Armenian businesses were destroyed, with a loss of over $35 million. My father lost his wife and three children along with his father & mother, not counting all the relatives & friends in the Village of Sis. My mother was the only survivor in the Village of Goteh as she lost her two children, her husband, father & mother.The archives in every nation are plentiful and it is a ridiculous outcry that it should be left to the historians. I like to see that told to the Jewish People of whom we know they would not accept. The ADL must push for recognition of the Armenian Genocide both in the Senate & Congress with the backing of all Jewish Organizations, the Israeli Government, and all its people.

Many thanks to the administration and the staff of Jewsy Magazine for your support and efforts towards silencing deniers of the Armenian genocide. You have been amazing

Any hope you can come out to Glendale?

 Keep up the good work.