Anti-Defamation League

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The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) is a United States-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1913 "to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all."[1] The ADL works to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of racism and bigotry, as well as promote interfaith harmony, and identify, analyze, and expose extremism.

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[edit] Controversies

[edit] Roy Bullock

The ADL's reputation took something of a hit in 1993 when Roy Bullock, an independent contractor providing much of the ADL's intelligence, was caught by the San Francisco district attorney's office keeping files on numerous individuals and groups from left to right, including Greenpeace, labor unions, anti-Apartheid groups, Religious Right groups, members of the U.S. Congress, and Arab-American groups, and illegally obtaining files from the San Francisco police department. Although the ADL took pains to insist they were Bullock's personal files and not the ADL's, the ADL settled out of court in 1999 with some of the targeted groups who had sued them.[2]

[edit] Armenian genocide

The ADL's reputation took another hit in 2007 when, in a massively hypocritical move, their director Abraham Foxman opposed recognition of the genocide against Armenians that took place 1915-1917; the ADL reversed their official position later that year after a public outcry.[3][4]

[edit] Criticism by Jews

Some Jews have criticized the ADL for using charges of anti-Semitism as a bullying tactic.[5] Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein have both accused the ADL of smearing Israel's political opponents as anti-Semites or worse (as if anything could be worse), and Jewish critics as self-hating Jews.[6]

[edit] Federal Reserve conspiracy theories

Due to the fact that the Federal Reserve and the ADL were both founded in 1913, anti-Semitic cranks often claim that the ADL was founded as a propaganda front for the Jews that secretly run the Fed.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. About the ADL
  2. Transcripts reveal nearly 40 years of espionage by a man who infiltrated political groups, LA Times
  3. ADL Statement on Armenian Genocide, Aug. 21, 2007
  4. ADL chief bows to critics, Boston Globe
  5. Fire Foxman, Joey Kurtzman
  6. Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Burton Levine
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