A talk with Abe Foxman

For weeks — months? — it feels like years — we’ve been using this space to warn our readers that antisemitism is coming at us from both ends of the political spectrum, and that wherever on that spectrum we feel most comfortable — left, right, or firmly in the center — we should be aware that it’s unlikely to be a safe space for Jews.

Now Abe Foxman of Bergen County, the national director emeritus of the Anti-Defamation League, a child survivor of the Holocaust who despite that background — because of that background? — became Mr. Optimist, holding onto that worldview for decades, providing hope to the rest of us, has come to agree with the new vantage point.

It’s a surprising way for Mr. Foxman to think, because he’s been so hopeful and forward-looking for so long. On the other hand, he’s smart, clear-eyed and realistic, so that change probably was unstoppable.

Here’s Mr. Foxman on antisemitism today:

“It’s getting worse. It’s coming together from all sides and I don’t know what to worry about more, the right or the left. On the right, today we saw the resignation of Kent.” That’s Joe Kent, who had been the Donald Trump-nominated, Senate-confirmed director of the National Counterterrorism Center. He left in protest of the war in Iran, because, as he put it in his resignation letter, “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

“He is an antisemite, an extremist, an isolationist — and all of a sudden he is using his position so his resignation makes news,” Mr. Foxman said. “And what is it all about? Blaming Israel!

“But I am maybe even more disturbed by the left, with the Democrats running away from AIPAC.”

But Abe, AIPAC has been making itself hard to like. Look at what it did in Mikie Sherrill’s old district, replacing Tom Malinowski with Analilia Mejia, and using dishonest advertising to do so.

“That is the American system,” Abe said. “You might not like advocacy politics, but whether it’s honest or dishonest, advocacy politics is part of the American way of life.”

His point about AIPAC is bigger than AIPAC, he said, and more far reaching. It has become a bogeyman — bogeygroup? — and it tarnishes anyone who takes money from it. But there is nothing any more wrong in taking money from AIPAC than from any other lobbying group, and no other lobbying group is used as the personification of evil as AIPAC is.

“People who don’t take money from the NRA don’t broadcast it,” Abe said. “They just don’t take it. If a politician doesn’t want to take money from AIPAC, don’t take money from AIPAC, but don’t make taking money from AIPAC a morality test. Because that continues to build the conspiracy theory that there is a Jewish lobby that controls America.

“It is disproportionate. It is dangerous. So now the left and the right are coming together to reinforce this very dangerous canard that the Jews control everything. Jews are in power. Jews decide, and the rest of us pay the price.

“Now it’s about whether or not you like Israel, but that doesn’t really matter. It’s just the Jews, right?

“This is a very, very dangerous time, and I don’t see political leaders standing up and saying that this is unacceptable, un-American, unhealthy, un-Christian, and immoral, even though it is all those things.”

We talked on Saint Patrick’s Day. “That’s the celebration of Irish history, Irish culture, Irish music,” Abe said. “So why did New York City’s mayor have to host Mary Robinson?”

On the surface, it makes sense that Ms. Robinson was Mr. Mamdani’s guest. She was the president of Ireland. But that’s not all the two talked about. No, instead, during his public remarks, as reported by CBS News, the mayor said this: “I think also of how she stood steadfast alongside the people of Palestine. Over the past few years, as we’ve witnessed a genocide unfold before our eyes, there has been deafening silence from so many. Palestinians are so often left to weep alone, yet former President Robinson has never been silent.”

“Why did the mayor have to say this?” Abe asked. “Most of the Irish people in New York couldn’t care less about Israel and Palestine. They love their culture, they love their country, they love their faith, God bless them.

“This is a scary time.”

Abe and I continued to quibble about AIPAC — two Jews, three opinions, and friendly arguing is fun and good for the brain cells — but it is hard to argue about the hatred coming from both sides.

It just is.

Which just means that we have to be aware of it and stay strong in our support of each other. Because it’s getting bad out there.

—JP