-Caveat Lector-
Jewish World Review June 4, 2001 / 14 Sivan, 5761
http://jewishworldreview.com/0601/pearlston.asp
Foxman never tires
in his search for
'hate' --- real or
imagined
The ADL pushes ''tolerance? Why I'm leaving after 25 years
By Carl Pearlston
http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- MY love affair with the ADL began
almost 25 years ago. It has just ended with a curt note from the Board
President advising me that I haven't shown a sufficient demonstration
of commitment to the ADL to warrant retention on the Executive
Committee or the Regional Board. How did it come to this?
I had been nominated to the Board by a judge with whom I had worked
during the heady civil rights years, and then to the Executive
Committee by the head of the Speakers Bureau, for which I was very
active. Not that the romance had not been rocky. I had always known
that my conservative Republican political views were barely tolerated
by my overwhelmingly liberal colleagues, and I was tempted to keep
them to myself. We were nominally a non-partisan organization, but our
meetings frequently felt uncomfortably like those of a Democratic
Party club in which it was assumed that all shared a common liberal or
progressive political worldview and none could, or wanted to, hear a
differing viewpoint.
Just after the recent presidential election, our Director accosted me
at a meeting with a vehement You stole the election! Our positions
were usually those of the liberal wing of the Democratic party on
issues like abortion, school choice, teacher pay, bilingual education,
affirmative action, the homosexual agenda, gun control.
I once cited the comprehensive study by Yale University Law School's
Dr. John Lott on gun laws to the effect that in those states where
people could legally carry concealed weapons, crimes against people
actually declined, since criminals do not want to take a chance that
their victim may be armed. I was met with the sarcastic and dismissive
response that Only John Lott, [talk show host and JWR columnist]
Larry Elder and you believe in that study.
[LINK]
There was not a great tolerance for diversity of viewpoint nor
introduction of new information. I was barred from distributing
written material which was germane and relevant to issues under
discussion; only material from staff could be disseminated. To be
fair, a member did once tell me that at least I kept them honest --
i.e. they were forced to at least be exposed to -- even if not to
consider, a different view.
But, it was an uphill struggle.
When I once confessed to our National Director, Abe Foxman, my
feelings of just spinning my wheels, he candidly told me that I would
have to realize that over 95% of those involved in the ADL were
liberal and would be unsympathetic to my conservative views.
DEMONIZING EXPONENTS OF JEWISH VALUES
Lack of sympathy frequently translated into lack of civility. For
example, at several meetings, there were objections that Dr. Laura
Schlesinger's radio program and planned TV program was offensive and
insensitive to homosexuals. I pointed out that her views enunciate
traditional Jewish values which deserve the support of a Jewish
defense organization, and was greeted with derision and intemperate,
hostile responses. When it came to the issue of homosexuals versus the
Boy Scouts, ADL chose the homosexuals, all the way to the Supreme
Court.
Then, in its otherwise commendable nationwide partnership with Barnes
and Noble in the program Hate Hurts, which sponsors books and educates
teachers and young children to fight hate, the ADL endorsed the books
Heather Has Two Mommies and Steve Has Two Daddies as suitable tools
for teaching tolerance to young children. Teachers' workshops and
children's reading groups were organized, using these and other books
in conjunction with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network
(GLSEN), which had earlier achieved a certain notoriety for its own
school workshops wherein teenagers were taught the fine points of
fisting and other homosexual practices.
TURNING JUDAISM ON ITS HEAD
In this manner, fighting hate became a euphemism for an attack on
sexual morality, the traditional family, and the Jewish view that
children deserve a loving father and mother, not two fathers or two
mothers. It is only through a perverse notion of tolerance that
support for traditional teaching about the family is intimidated, and
condemned.
When Dennis Prager participated by invitation in a panel discussion on
church-state issues, some members actually hissed and booed his
remarks in a hostile display of intolerance. A respected board member
persistently repeated to all who would hear that Prager was insane.
When the organization published its harsh attack on the
