Andrew Tarsy Fired Over Armenian Genocide

Life is a funny thing. We have called so many times for Andrew Tarsy to be fired, that if he made a nickel every time we did it, he would be able to retire by now. Now, he is fired, and we are sorry.

Boston Globe:

ADL local leader fired on Armenian issue
Genocide question sparked bitter debate

By Keith O'Brien, Globe Staff  |  August 18, 2007

The national Anti-Defamation League fired its New England regional director yesterday, one day after he broke ranks with national ADL leadership and said the human rights organization should acknowledge the Armenian genocide that began in 1915.
The firing of Andrew H. Tarsy, who had served as regional director for about two years and as civil rights counsel for about five years before that, prompted an immediate backlash among prominent local Jewish leaders against the ADL's national leadership and its national director, Abraham H. Foxman.
"My reaction is that this was a vindictive, intolerant, and destructive act, ironically by an organization and leader whose mission -- fundamental mission -- is to promote tolerance," Newton businessman Steve Grossman, a former ADL regional board member, said yesterday.
"I predict that Foxman's actions will precipitate wholesale resignations from the regional board, a meaningful reduction in ADL's regional fund-raising, and will further exacerbate the ADL's relationship with the non-Jewish community coming out of this crisis around the Armenian genocide."
Tarsy, 38, said he had been struggling with the national position for weeks and finally told Foxman in a phone conversation Thursday that he found the ADL's stance "morally indefensible." [link]

We agree with Andrew -- ADL's position on the topic of Armenian genocide is morally indefensible. But so was the decision by the Sharon government to conduct ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Gaza. This morally indefensible decision turned Gaza in Hamasistan. At the time all major American Jewish organizations supported this decision that lead to a humanitarian crisis and created a major threat to Jewish lives everywhere in the world. Very few members of IDF refused to obey criminal orders at the time. The numbers have grown since then. We have discussed this is a recent post: When a Jew Should Refuse an Order?
We believe that Andrew Tarsy answered this question. When the order is morally indefensible.
Good for you, Andrew. Thank you for taking a principled stance.

posted by: jrtelegraph

Comments

[Mark Chulsky]

Dear JRT,

Unfortunately, this post does not explain what's going on under the surface.

On the surface, I agree with Mr. Tarsy and everyone else here, Armenians suffered a genocide during the WWI, and no one should deny that. Under the surface, I'd like to look at the motivations of Messrs. Tarsy, Foxman, et al.

It's well know that EU wants Turks to admit the genocide. It's easy to predict what happens after Turks do it. Armenian genocide will be promoted to the rank of Holocaust, it will be studied in schools, and some circles, predictably, will say there is nothing special in Jewish Holocaust.

Meanwhile, there is a crucial difference. While the Jewish Holocaust was perpetrated by a full force of a national military, the killing of Armenians was mostly the result of incompetence of the Ottoman government.

I'm not a big fan of Mr. Foxman, but if it is this point he tries to stress, I must agree.

[Bill Levinson]

Last year, ADL whitewashed vicious anti-Semitic (and other) hate speech at MoveOn.org's now-disgraced Action Forum, probably to pander to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

This pales in comparison to Foxman's efforts to downplay and sweep under the rug (he admittedly doesn't deny that it happened) the genocide of the Armenians.

QUIZ: Who said, "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

(a) Kemal Ataturk
(b) Abraham Foxman
(c) Adolf Hitler
(d) Osama bin Laden
(e) Sultan Mohammed V

Many people might answer (b), Abraham Foxman, but the real answer is (c), Adolf Hitler. The context was Hitler's plan to exterminate the Poles to create "living space" for his "Master Race," and he probably extended this line of thought to the Jews. This is why Foxman's actions are particularly reprehensible.

[Seva Brodsky]

I would like to express my sympathy, respect, and appreciation to Andy, with whom I have previously locked horns over our differing positions on a number of issues.

Andy has now shown his mettle, thus earning much admiration with his principled stance in the face of an unwavering "party line" -- however wrong that line might be.

Abe Foxman, too, revealed his real self -- no dissent would be tolerated. Which begs a question -- is ADL a publicly supported organization, doing good deeds in the name of us all, or is it but a sandbox for one big boy with an over-inflated ego to play in?

Since when has sweeping problems under the rug given positive results? Only honesty, fairness, balance, transparency, accountability, and other such democratic ideals -- all the notions we fought so much over with the ADL -- only such concepts, when put into practice, give the desired positive results, whereas all else leads down a slippery slope into inaction, inefficacy, and downright infamy.

Way to go, Andy Tarsy!

Shame on you, Abe Foxman!

[richard landes]

excellent comment. my sympathy to Andy. what is the reasoning behind the ADL's position - we don't want to upset the Turks? and why is this then a matter of military discipline in the ranks?