This report in today’s New York Times makes it clear why the opposition of the Anti-Defamation League to a Manhattan mosque was so squalid. It is not just about one building downtown; it’s an episode in a nationwide assault on the rights of a minority—exactly the kind of group the ADL of old could be relied on to protect.
The old guard Jewish organizations are radically out of step with the values of most Jews in America, who continue to support equality and inclusion as core social principles. Bigotry may rule in Israel, but it remains anathema here, at least among the liberal half of the population, where most Jews are to be found. Either the misguided leadership of the mainstream Jewish organizations must be retired, or the organizations themselves have to be replaced.
Though I disagree with some of the statements in the link below, the AJC supports the building of the Cordoba Center.
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Something I have found weird about this whole thing is that this center is supposedly being built "several blocks" from Ground Zero. I might see some basis for complaints if it were being built right smack in the middle of it, where at the moment there is nothing. But "several blocks" away? Just how many blocks away does something have to be before it stops being "offensive"? As it is, reports are coming in about protests against the building of mosques around the country, now openly on anti-Muslim grounds, not over "too much traffic" or the other sorts of things that locals sometimes protest the building of new churches or synagogues over.
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ReplyDeleteWhat ADL of old? The ADL that worked with South African intelligence in the 80s to spy on human rights groups and anti-apartheid activists in the US?
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