FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT, AND LIVING TO TELL THE TALE
By Erik Schechter
Jerusalem Post
Aug 30 2007
It is a rare thing for a public figure to sacrifice himself for a
principle. It is even rarer for one who did so to get a second chance
at a career. Yet that’s what happened to Andrew Tarsy.
A couple of weeks ago, the New England regional director for the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) lost his job after he criticized his
organization for refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide. The
firestorm that followed forced the ADL to jettison its policy of
denial, but no one really expected Tarsy would return. Then, on August
27, the brave community leader was reinstated to his former post.
The showdown over the genocide began in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Since 2005, the municipality had cooperated with the ADL in running
an education program called No Place for Hate. But beginning in May,
some local conservatives began to fear that the initiative would
penalize politically incorrect speech; one Watertown resident even
flew a Confederate flag in protest.
Of course, a few peevish right-wingers posed no real threat to
the ADL program. But all bets were off when, in early July, an
Armenian-American resident of nearby Newton entered the fray. Writing
a letter to the Watertown Tab and Press, he charged the ADL – so
eager to lecture others about hate crimes and Holocaust denial –
with refusing to acknowledge the Armenian genocide.
Once more, all his claims were true.
During World War I (and later, in 1920-1923), the Ottoman Turks
murdered as many as 1.5 million Armenians. Few reputable historians
deny this was genocide, but American Jewish groups have discouraged
Congress from recognizing it as such. Indeed, when forced to discuss
this blood-red chapter in history, the ADL would use comparatively
anemic words like "massacres." Shocked by the revelation, the citizens
of Watertown began to reconsider No Place for Hate. After all, who
needed tolerance tips from hypocrites?
REALIZING WHAT was at stake, Andrew Tarsy did his best to defend a
morally indefensible position. Still, no letter to the editor could
hide the fact that, since the Israel-Turkey entente of the early 1990s,
the ADL has served as Ankara’s lobby in the US.
On August 14, Tarsy pleaded for understanding from the Watertown Town
Council, arguing that Turkish Jews and Israel would suffer a backlash
if the ADL recognized the Armenian genocide.
Unimpressed by appeals to political expediency, the council voted
8-0 to cut ties with the No Place for Hate program. Two days later,
the New England ADL director himself criticized his group’s stance
on the issue.
Tarsy would later explain that even as he defended the official ADL
line in Watertown, he did not agree with it. Now it was time to make
amends for the hurtful things he said. He told The Boston Globe:
"I regret at this point any characterization of the genocide that I
made publicly other than to call it genocide. I think that kind of
candor about history is absolutely fundamental."
For the New England director to publicly criticize the national ADL was
no easy thing. Informed sources say Abe Foxman runs his organization
like a Ba’athist dictatorship, eliminating any and all challengers. He
has replaced numerous civil rights and regional directors and, in 2001,
fired a beloved Pacific Southwest leader without breaking a sweat. By
taking on Foxman, Tarsy put his career in jeopardy.
And as expected, the dissenting ADL regional director was promptly
canned.
However, Tarsy’s sacrifice for what was right and good inspired
people. The Boston Jewish community rallied behind him; two local ADL
board members resigned in protest, and former critics heaped praise
upon him. "I booed Tarsy at the Watertown council meeting, but now I
cheer him on," said John DiMascio, a conservative columnist for The
Watertown Tab and Press. "He showed courage."
MEANWHILE, leading Jewish personalities like Alan Dershowitz and
Deborah Lipstadt took aim at the ADL. The blogosphere even called
for Foxman’s ouster. Clearly, the ADL leadership had underestimated
how unpopular genocide denial was among the people it supposedly
represents.
Four days after Tarsy was fired, the organization reversed course
on the Armenian tragedy. Well, sort of. Rather than simply state its
new position, the ADL’s public letter on August 21 engaged in weird
convolutions. It said "the consequences" of what the Ottomans did to
the Armenians were "tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had
existed then, they would have called it genocide."
The vagueness of the letter troubled many. For others, the problem
remained that the ADL still opposed Congressional recognition of
the genocide.
Still, the statement was a positive first step. Six days later,
Foxman took another by rehiring Tarsy.
Does this put an end to the ADL’s troubling attitude toward the first
genocide of the 20th century? No. But it was a rare, little victory
for everyone who believes that truth is more important than politics.
And how much sweeter is that victory now that Tarsy, the man who won
it, is back.
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