Abraham Foxman

Abraham Henry Foxman is an American lawyer and activist He served as the national director of the AntiDefamation League ADL from 1987 to 2015 and is currently the organizations national director emeritus From 2016 to 2021 he served as vice chair of the board of trustees at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City in order to lead its efforts on antisemitism Foxman has received criticism from Jewish and nonJewish quarters for his antagonist approach to the 2004 film The Passion of the Christ and its director Mel Gibson In September 2003 during the prerelease controversy Foxman called Gibson the portrait of an antiSemite The next day he said Im not ready to say hes an antiSemite but that Gibson entertains views that can only be described as antiSemitic In November 2003 Foxman said of Gibson I think hes infected seriously infected with some very very serious antiSemitic views In a letter to the National Review published in the March 8 2004 issue Foxman compared the film to the Nazisupported 1934 Oberammergau Passion Play concerning that the film could legitimize antiSemitism through its depiction of Jews In 2015 Foxman wrote an article for Time Magazine criticizing The Vaticans recognition of Palestine stating These recognitions dont take into account the Palestinians role in failing to reach an agreement with Israel Clearly Israel is facing issues relating to dismantling settlements and finding a solution for Jerusalem all in a regional environment at a time when extremist Islam groups are gaining ground and where Israels experience in withdrawing from territory has not been a good one Let us never forget however that the crux of the problem today as it has been for decades is the Palestinian refusal to accept the legitimacy of Jewish state