“RUSSIAN FEDERATION COUNCIL SPEAKER AGREED WITH RA LEADERSHIP”
[ Part 2.2: “Attached Text” ]
By Michael Levenson
Boston Globe November 21, 2013
[FORM]
nor-judicial-nominee/VYK9FoJg5AEfSk7RH4mmSJ/story.html Tears were
shed and Hitler was quoted on Wednesday, as ethnic tensions erupted
at the State House and threatened to derail Governor Deval Patrick’s
nominee for a seat on the Superior Court.
The charged struggle centers around the leadership role that the
nominee, Joseph S. Berman, has played in the Anti-Defamation League,
a national organization dedicated to combating anti-Semitism and
other forms of discrimination.
Berman’s nomination stirred opposition because, for years, the
organization refused to label as genocide the slaughter of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1923, a stance that angered the
Armenian community. But in 2007, the organization reversed course
and called the slaughter “tantamount to genocide,” quieting the
controversy until it flared again around Berman’s nomination.
A commercial litigation lawyer from Weston, Berman has been a
national commissioner of the organization since 2006, and a member
of its regional board and executive committee.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Governor’s Council, the elected
eight-member panel that approves judicial nominations, Councilor
Marilyn M. Pettito Devaney led the opposition to Berman, saying she
had the five votes needed to reject his nomination.
Devaney, a Democrat from Watertown, home to a large Armenian
community, stood and denounced Berman’s affiliation with the
Anti-Defamation League, as the governor looked on, chagrined.
“In 1939, Hitler, carrying out his horrific mission to exterminate
the Jews, said, ‘Who remembers the Armenians?'” Devaney said, her voice
trembling and eyes filling with tears. “I do. And many others do, too.”
Devaney said if she belonged to “a group who denied the Holocaust,”
she would resign. Several other councilors agreed that Berman’s ties
to the Anti-Defamation League are a concern, while raising their own
separate objections.
Patrick, who chairs the Governor’s Council, postponed the vote
on Berman’s nomination until Dec. 4, forestalling an embarrassing
political defeat. The governor called Berman “more than ready to serve”
on the Superior Court.
“I’m going to work hard to get the votes,” Patrick told the
councilors. “I haven’t had an opportunity to do that. I’m not ready
today.”
Several councilors strongly objected to the delay and urged Patrick
to allow them to vote immediately on Berman’s nomination.
“We’re not going to change our minds,” Devaney said. “To prolong
this serves no purpose.”
Councilor Terrence W. Kennedy agreed, saying that even though he
supports Berman, a delay will not save the nomination.
“It’s a democracy, and I don’t think the vote is going to change,”
he told Patrick.
Typically, the lieutenant governor would chair meetings of the
council, a fractious and often rebellious panel that dates to the
Colonial era. But because Timothy P. Murray resigned as lieutenant
governor in May, Patrick has had to fill that role.
The fight over Berman’s nomination harkens back to the bitter
controversy over the Armenian genocide that engulfed the
Anti-Defamation League six years ago.
In 2007, the organization fired its New England regional director,
Andrew H. Tarsy, after he broke rank with national leadership and
said it should acknowledge the genocide.
The organization had expressed concern that doing so could harm
Israel’s relations with Turkey, a rare Muslim ally.
Many Jewish and Armenian leaders in New England criticized Tarsy’s
firing and urged the organization to recognize the genocide. After
several days of outcry, the national director, Abraham H. Foxman,
issued a statement in 2007 calling the massacre of Armenians
“tantamount to genocide” but stopping short of labeling it an actual
genocide.
Anti-Defamation League leaders said Wednesday that that phrase is
not meant to obscure the historical suffering of Armenians.
“ADL policy right now is crystal clear: that we recognize the
Armenian genocide,” said Robert O. Trestan, director of the New
England Anti-Defamation League. “We’re on the record making that
recognition more than five years ago, and we’ve moved on from the
issue, and it doesn’t seem appropriate, more than five years later,
to bring this up in light of a judicial nomination.”
Reached by phone on Wednesday, Berman declined to discuss the issue.
Councilors have also objected to Berman because he donated about
$110,000 to Democratic candidates over the last decade, contributions
that they say make it appear as though his nomination was a reward
for his financial support. In addition, at least one criticized his
nomination because he once represented a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.
Jeffrey S. Robbins, the chair of the board of the New England
Anti-Defamation League, was among those who testified in support of
Berman at his nomination hearing last week.
“The assault on Joe Berman is particularly egregious” because Berman
was one of the most vocal and effective voices within the organization
urging it to acknowledge the massacre as a genocide, Robbins said.
“That’s the kind of courage and principle that should be rewarded,
and not penalized,” he said.
Michael Levenson can be reached at [email protected].
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/11/21/ethnic-tensions-flare-over-gover