Stepping down

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham H. Foxman announced plans to step down in July, 2015. Foxman is a Holocaust survivor who after emigrating to America became national director in 1987.

“Abe Foxman is a unique leader in American Jewish life. No one brings the combination of passion, experience, insight and courage to the Jewish community like Abe,” Barry Curtiss-Lusher, ADL national chair, wrote in a letter to ADL’s National Commission. “His experience as a hidden child and the son of Holocaust survivors imprinted on his consciousness a deep pride in his Jewishness and the need to stand up for Jews wherever and whenever they were treated badly.

“From its beginnings, ADL combatted anti-Semitism. Under Abe the added dimension has been the self-confidence about being Jewish, which manifests itself in a willingness to take courageous stands on behalf of the Jewish people. … In a word, it’s all about inspiration. Abe has inspired us all and we are so much the better for that, as individuals, as an organization, as a community,” Curtiss-Lusher also wrote.After July 20, 2015 Foxman will become ADL director emeritus.

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