August 21, 2007
Breaking: ADL Now Recognizing the Armenian Genocide
Update: Andrew Tarsy, the New England regional director of the ADL who was fired for recognizing the Armenian genocide, has been rehired.
The action of the citizens of Watertown has had a tremendous ripple effect. After releasing a statement refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide and firing its New England director, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, released a statement today in which he recognizes the Armenian genocide. Here is what he has to say:
On reflection, we have come to share the view of Henry Morgenthau, Sr., that the consequences of those actions [when Ottoman Turks slaughtered up to 1.5 million Armenians in 1915] were indeed tantamount to genocide. If the word genocide had existed then, they would have called it genocide.
Foxman said that he spoke with Elie Wiesel about the matter. However, Foxman said that the ADL still won't back a Congressional resolution that recognizes the Armenian genocide as a genocide, so the controversy isn't over.
Out of curiosity, will Andrew Tarsy get his job back?
Related: ADL's Regional Director Says ADL Should Acknowledge Armenian Genocide; ADL Fires Him, Watertown Pulls Out of No Place for Hate Program, H2oTown in general.
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I can't believe no one had anything to say about this?
This loyal SFist reader grew up next door to Watertown and saw Abe Foxman speak at Newton North HS after a racial incident involving blacks & mushes (that's I-talians to you). No Jews, although many of us in the audience bobbed our heads at his platitudes.
I now living in the shadow (literally) of a pretty awesome monument to the Armenian genocide - the cross on Mount Davidson in San Francisco.
Further qualifying me to comment on this story: My middle name is Abraham (again, literally!).
Dudes and Mensches: it doesn't matter what you call it. The point is that it was bad like the Holocaust. Not "as bad as" the Holocaust - it's not a contest. It's just another sad chapter in man's inhumanity to man. When people try to make out like theirs is the only group to suffer, that's when other people think they're sniveling schmucks.