Abraham Foxman
Abraham H. Foxman (b. 1940) is the current National Director and chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith and strong supporter of Israel. Foxman has worked for the Anti-Defamation League since 1965, and was promoted to National Director in 1987.
Born in Poland, Foxman was saved from the Holocaust by his Polish Catholic nanny who had him baptized into the Roman Catholic church and raised him as a Catholic until the end of the Holocaust. Most of his family was not as fortunate as he was, and were died in Nazi concentration camps.
He arrived in the United States in 1950 with his parents, graduated from Yeshiva of Flatbush, in Brooklyn, New York, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the City College of the City University of New York and graduated with honors in history. Foxman also holds a law degree from New York University's School of Law, and did graduate work in Jewish studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and in international economics at New York's New School University.
Foxman has obtained meetings with many world leaders, including past U.S. Presidents, the current U.S. President George W. Bush, and many Middle Eastern leaders, as well as with Pope John Paul II.
Foxman has become a controversial person in the USA and the Jewish community as a result of his central role in persuading President Bill Clinton to pardon fugitive billionaire Marc Rich in early 2001. Rich gave the ADL $250,000 during the pardon effort, which involved Foxman flying first class to Switzerland to meet with Rich. After obtaining the pardon, Rich promptly began helping Saddam Hussein use the UN's oil for food program to steer money into Hussein's coffers at a time when Hussein was paying money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Rich is once again under investigation by U.S. government authorities. Foxman has told the Forward, a Jewish weekly, that he would not necessarily turn down future donations from his wealthy friend.
External links
- Autobiography, part 1
- http://www.adl.org/education/holocaust/life_of_service.asp Autobiography, part 2]
- http://dennisking.org/foxman2.htm Blog series by Foxman critic Dennis King
- http://jdo.org/fox.htm Includes "Open Letter to Abe Foxman" strongly critical of his leadership