ADL leaders get national, world briefings

By John Johnston
Managing Editor
 
An increasing emphasis on religion by presidential candidates has troubling implications for the separation of church and state, and for religious freedom generally in the United States, said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy.

“The major candidates don’t fully get it,” said Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance.

“And that ought to be scary for the rest of us,” he told more than 250 leaders of the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) top policymaking body.

Gaddy was among those who spoke recently at ADL’s annual meeting in Palm Beach – and while acknowledging the right of politicians to have and speak beliefs, Gaddy said that candidates run the risk of begging the question of religious freedom with direct appeals to voters based on religious beliefs.

“Our public expressions of religion ought never to leave any of our fellow citizens believing that we have no place for them in that nation that we envision,” he said.

ADL’s annual meeting featured Rev. Gaddy and a range of experts speaking on issues of central importance to the Jewish community, including immigration reform, the 2008 campaign, the current state of anti-Semitism at home and abroad, how Jews and democracy fare in Venezuela, and the U.S. strategy to isolate what several speakers called an increasingly bold and nuclear weapon-seeking Iran.

The keynote speaker, Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert M. Kimmitt, called Tehran’s uranium enrichment activities and ballistic missile development a “dangerous combination” that necessitates continued action by the United States and the world community, he said.

Alexis Simendinger, National Correspondent for National Journal, gave an assessment of the issues that are influencing voters in the 2008 presidential primaries. “This is such an interesting campaign to watch, totally unscripted and just a delight for us in the media,” said Simendinger
She added, “I’m really struck by the impact (President Bush) is having on the race and the impact he is going to have all the way until the end,” she said.
Simendinger added that issues surrounding immigration reform, the economy, government spending, the Iraq war, and religion would define the race in the weeks and months ahead.  Where the candidates stand on immigration, she said, will be a “big motivator” for Hispanic voters, and will play a significant role in the election, with more and more Hispanics voting and influencing the debate.

ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman discussed the difference between perception and reality in addressing current manifestations of anti-Semitism.  He said “a certain quiet, if not silence” has returned, despite ongoing and serious incidents targeting Jews both at home and abroad.

“The truth is, anti-Semitism, here and there, domestically and internationally, is still a serious problem, reflected both in daily incidents of anti-Jewish hate and in the broader anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that are spreading the world and receiving acceptance,” said Mr. Foxman.  “These daily hate crimes and hate expressions have an effect far wider than on the victims themselves.  They traumatize an entire community.”

ADL National Chair Glen S. Lewy gave an overview and assessment of the League’s various programmatic successes in 2007, including ADL’s Advance Training School for Law Enforcement, which briefs federal state and municipal officers on extremist and terrorist threats; Bearing Witness, a program that provides guidance to Catholic educators on teaching the history of the Holocaust; a new initiative to confront cyberbullying in schools; the ADL National Youth Leadership Mission to Washington, D.C., which brings young people to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to learn about anti-Semitism and moral courage; and the League’s efforts to support Jewish communities abroad in combating anti-Semitism and promoting democracy. 

ADL leaders also heard from Venezuelan journalist Sammy Eppel, a political analyst and distinguished columnist with El Universal, who described efforts by President Hugo Chavez to maintain power, suppress dissent and manage the economy.  Mr. Eppel said that anti-Semitism in Venezuela is different from the familiar religious and “racial” types in other countries. “It’s being done for political purposes,” he said.  “Chavez wants to be on the good side of his friends in Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.”

Christian Rescuer of Jews Honored: Dr. Clara M. Ambrus (nee Bayer) of Buffalo, New York, received the ADL Courage to Care Award, which honors rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust era.  A Hungarian Christian rescuer, Dr. Ambrus courageously risked her life to save the lives of Jews and others following the Nazi occupation of Hungary in 1944.

The Making of “American Skinheads”:  Mike Sinclair, Executive Producer of M2 Pictures gave a behind the scenes look at the making of the National Geographic Special, “American Skinheads” (November 2007).  The hour-long documentary highlights the resurgence of racist skinhead activity in the United States and the work of ADL’s Racist Skinhead Project in exposing the racist skinhead movement.