Anti-Defamation League

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The Anti-Defamation League ( ADL ; German: Anti-Defamierungs-Liga ) is an American organization based in New York City that stands up against discrimination and defamation of Jews. It describes itself as a human rights organization , is a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and was founded in Chicago in 1913 by members of the organization B'nai B'rith (Hebrew: "Sons of the Covenant"). The main activity of the organization is the fight against anti-Semitism .

founding

An incident in 1913 in the US state of Georgia , in which the factory director Leo Frank was lynched for allegedly raping and murdering Mary Phagan, a 13-year-old girl, was decisive for the establishment . He was acquitted posthumously, however, due to the fact that the authorities did not guarantee him adequate protection in detention at the time without addressing the question of guilt.

aims

In addition to anti-Semitism, the ADL claims to fight all forms of prejudice, bigotry and discrimination . “ADL recognizes that its initial primary goal of fighting anti-Semitism can only be successful if it is committed to protecting all people. Human rights are not divisible. "

A World of Difference

The ADL Boston office developed the A World of Difference program in 1985 due to ethnic tensions . The central approach is the cooperation of the education system with community representatives and the media. Out of this process, the A World of Difference Institute was founded in 1992 .

In 1993 the A World of Difference program was introduced in Bremen, Rostock and Hamburg under the name A World of Diversity.

European office in Vienna

The organization has been represented in Europe with an office in Vienna since 1998, which is financed by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation .

Austria

In Austria, a contract was signed in 2001 between the organization and the Federal Ministry of the Interior . The aim of this cooperation was to take further training measures in favor of a prejudice-free attitude by the Austrian security executive. In 2004 a second contract was signed, which extended the previous one until the end of 2006 and expanded the cooperation. From 2008 to 2017 there was also a collaboration with the Austrian Memorial Service .

Germany

In Germany, too, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the organization want to continue to work together "in solidarity".

In September 2008 the organization announced that it saw a possible Allianz stadium in New York as "a disparagement of the memory of the Holocaust victims" due to the former connection of the Allianz group to National Socialism .

Awards ceremonies

The league awards several prizes, mainly to politicians.

Distinguished Statesman Award

The organization presents a Distinguished Statesman Award for special political merit. Prize winners include Ariel Scharon (2002), Silvio Berlusconi (2003) and Aleksander Kwaśniewski (2005).

The award ceremony for Berlusconi sparked protests because he had played down the Italian fascists under Mussolini shortly before . The chairman of the ADL, Abraham Foxman , still called him a "friend", albeit a "friend with flaws" ("flawed friend"). Foxman justified the decision by stating that Berlusconi's stance towards the State of Israel and his support for the US in the war against Iraq and terrorism was important and that Berlusconi's stance towards Italy's fascist past was a “slip-up”, according to Foxman.

Joseph Award for Human Rights

The ADL also presents the Joseph Award for Human Rights to leaders for their commitment to freedom, democracy and human rights. Prize winners included the Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir , the Jordanian King Hussein , the Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin , the South African President Frederik Willem de Klerk , the US President George HW Bush (2002) and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2014).

Paul Ehrlich-Günter K. Schwerin Human Rights Prize

The league also awarded the Paul Ehrlich -Günther K. Schwerin Human Rights Prize at irregular intervals . Prize winners included former Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth (1999), Defense Minister Rudolf Scharping (2000), Member of the Bundestag Gert Weisskirchen (2005), former Interior Minister Otto Schily (2006) and Matthias Küntzel (2011).

criticism

Abraham Foxman, former chairman of the Anti-Defamation League

In the second half of 2007, the ADL and its chairman's stance on the Armenian genocide brought the organization under fire from American Jews. The ADL had spoken out against a resolution of the US Congress in which the historic event was to be described as genocide. Because of this, some Jewish communities in the USA decided to cut their ties with the ADL. In May 2016, however, Jonathan Greenblatt, director of the ADL, stated that the organization would support US recognition of the Armenian genocide. Greenblatt called the events of 1915 "crystal clear" as genocide.

Robert Friedman wrote in 1993 that the ADL spied on actual and alleged communists , anti- apartheid activists, the NAACP , the ACLU , Sandinista solidarity groups, Palestinian and Arab organizations and supporters of the Israeli group Shalom Achshaw in the USA and the data obtained, among others. a. to the South African apartheid regime and the Israeli secret service.

In 2007, James Traub referred to the organization as Foxman's “one-man Sanhedrin who grants censure or absolution” and whose worldview became increasingly black and white (“good for the Jews” and “bad for the Jews”) that the organization has moved to the right politically.

Norman Finkelstein attributed a positive role to the organization in his earlier works, but in later books he accused the ADL of participating in McCarthy's anti - communist agitation , a smear campaign against Hannah Arendt in the 1960s and against in the 1970s To have led Noam Chomsky and primarily not to fight anti-Semitism, but to defend Israel against any criticism.

The US political scientists John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt accused the organization of denigrating any criticism of the Israeli government as anti-Semitic.

After the ADL exerted its influence and a lecture by British historian Tony Judt in New York was canceled at short notice, more than a hundred people signed an open letter in the New York Review of Books accusing the ADL of "a climate of intimidation" to spread that "is not compatible with the basic principles of discussion in a democracy".

In October 2013 the ADL published a list of the "ten most anti-Semitic organizations in the USA". The organization Jewish Voice for Peace , which works for a political solution to the Middle East conflict, was also on this list . Then there were protests from different quarters; but the list has not been changed.

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ The story of "A World of Diversity Berlin eV" ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Homepage A World Of Difference Institute - Anti-Bias Education and Diversity Training ( Memento from February 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ^ The cooperation of the Anti-Defamation League, Austria with the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior
  4. ^ Department - Anti-Defamation League. In: Austrian Service Abroad. Association of Austrian Foreign Service, accessed on June 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ http://www.bmi.bund.de/Internet/Content/Common/Anlagen/Broschueren/2007/innenpolitik__4__2006__1__2007__EU__Spezial,templateId=raw,property=publicationFile.pdf/innenpolitik_4_2006_1_2007_EU_Spezial.pdf (Link not available)
  6. ↑ Martin Dowideit: Allianz is confronted with a Nazi past in the USA. In: welt.de . September 13, 2008, accessed October 7, 2018 .
  7. ^ Berlusconi To Receive Award From Jewish Group . In: Associated Press. September 18, 2003
  8. ^ ADL Presents German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Joseph Prize for Human Rights. Retrieved July 13, 2019 .
  9. ^ Neela Banerjee: Armenian Issue Presents a Dilemma for US Jews . In: New York Times . October 19, 2007.
  10. ↑ ADL to recognize massacre of Armenians as 'genocide' . The Times of Israel , May 16, 2016. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  11. ^ Robert I. Friedman: The Anti-Defamation League Is Spying On You. In: Village Voice . XXXVIII, May 19, May 11, 1993
  12. ↑ James Traub: Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem? In: The New York Times . January 14, 2007
  13. ↑ Norman H. Finkelstein: Heeding the Call. Jewish Voices in America's Civil Rights Struggle. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia PA 1997, ISBN 0-8276-0590-9 , passim; Norman H. Finkelstein: American Jewish History. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia PA 2007, ISBN 978-0-8276-0810-8 , p. 111; Norman H. Finkelstein: Forged in Freedom. Shaping the Jewish-American Experience. Jewish Publication Society, Philadelphia PA 2002, ISBN 0-8276-0748-2 , pp. 70ff.
  14. ^ Norman H. Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. 2nd edition. Verso, London et al. 2003, ISBN 1-85984-488-X , p. 15.
  15. ^ Norman H. Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry. Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. 2nd edition. Verso, London et al. 2003, ISBN 1-85984-488-X , p. 21.
  16. ^ Norman H. Finkelstein: The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering. 2nd edition. Verso, London et al. 2003, ISBN 1-85984-488-X , passim.
  17. ^ John J. Mearsheimer & Stephen M. Walt: The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2007, ISBN 978-0-374-17772-0 , p. 232.
  18. ^ Mark Lilla & Richard Sennett: The Case of Tony Judt: An Open Letter to the ADL . In: New York Review of Books . 53, 18, November 16, 2006
  19. ↑ Telepolis: Jewish Peace Group targeted by the Israel lobby in the USA , accessed on December 18, 2014

Coordinates: 38 ° 54 '14.4 "  N , 77 ° 2' 26.1"  W.