Abraham Foxman Wasn't Happy with MeThe Man Who Led the Anti-Defamation League for 28 Years Died Yesterday
In 2008, I placed a call to Abe Foxman. He was the head of the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that combats antisemitism but is smart enough to hide that in its name. You have to be pretty nervous to couch your work in terms like, “Oh man, those Nazis sure did defame us.” The ADL had released a poll showing that 22% of Americans believed “the movie and television industries are pretty much run by Jews.” This greatly upset me, since it was down from nearly 50% in 1964. I wanted us to get the credit we deserved. I assumed, based on all my previous interactions with Jews, that Foxman and I were going to have a good laugh. He’d say that without us, Americans would be stuck flipping between Davey and Goliath and Touched by an Angel. I’d say that he just defamed Touched by an Angel. Then we’d buy a studio together. That is not what happened. Foxman told me not to run my column. He said the article, which the L.A. Times would headline “Who Runs Hollywood? C’mon,” would be weaponized for decades by antisemites. When he failed to convince me, he implored me to at least not use the phrase “the Jews control Hollywood.” Instead, he wanted me to say that “many executives in the industry happen to be Jewish.” This made as much sense to me as saying that “many OnlyFans creators happen to be female.” I ran the article anyway. I did quote Foxman’s objections, but I mocked them by claiming I was starting a public relations campaign to remind America that Jews run Hollywood with the slogan, “If you enjoy TV and movies, then you probably like Jews after all.” Nine years later, I got a voicemail from Gillian Laub, a photographer I know. She wanted me to call her right away. She was taking photos of someone who said their favorite journalist in the world was me. That person was former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke.
I did not call back right away. Yes, it was possible that Duke loved me for the same reason the rest of America does. He must enjoy lots of things the rest of us do. I’m sure he also likes chocolate, Mozart, and crisp white sheets. But I knew why he liked me. Which Gillian confirmed. While a paywall might have kept you from reading the link to my L.A. Times column, you can enjoy it for free on many a white nationalist website. The utopian future that the Aryans envision has no Jewish lawyers, and therefore no one to enforce copyright law. Whenever I see the article weaponized on social media, I get a little sick. You would think this would stop me from Googling my own name, but it’s not nearly sick enough for that. Foxman was born nine days after my father. His name was Avraham Fuksman, which is the only acceptable reason for a Jew to change his last name.¹ It also makes me sad that there wasn’t a Jewish character in Boogie Nights.
Foxman’s parents sent him off with a Christian nanny to escape the Nazis. In his 2004 book, Never Again: The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, Foxman recalled that when he was with his nanny in Lithuania, he learned from her to call people dirty Jews and spit at them. She apparently hadn’t gotten the full brief that Anne Frank’s protectors got. Though in the end, she did a better job. After the war, she went to court in a custody battle with his parents, who survived the Holocaust, though 14 members of their family didn’t. His parents won, and they moved to New York City, where Foxman was in the same graduating class as my dad at City College. After that, he went to law school. And then immediately joined the ADL to fight the people who tried to kill him. As much as he reminds me of my dad, my family doesn’t have his history. So I was able to write my snotty little column while he spent his life working to convince people not to be prejudiced. As he told The New York Times in 2020, “If you don’t believe you can change people’s hearts and minds, why bother?” I bother because writing teaches me what I think. Because it makes me feel better. Because it’s a way of feeling less alone. Less scared. But I do not think I can change hearts and minds. Back when I wrote my column, I thought Foxman was too panicked about antisemitism. But as he told The New York Times when he retired, “unfortunately, time has proven me correct.” Maybe if Foxman hadn’t dedicated his career to combating anti-semitism, it would be more virulent now. Maybe if he hadn’t received apologies from Marlon Brando, Oliver Stone, John Galliano, Mel Gibson, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton, and CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, people would feel even more free to denigrate Jews. Maybe. Maybe there would be even more guards at synagogues. Maybe more Jews would be stabbed and shot. Maybe more kids here in Los Angeles would see their classmates drawing swastikas on their desks. Maybe my column is a little responsible for that. But I don’t think so. I don’t think my column has had any effect at all. I don’t think there’s anything more we in the media can do about antisemitism than point it out and hope. Unfortunately, I believe that time has proven me correct.
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Yes, I’m talking to you, Jon Stuart Leibowitz. Thank you for paying to read my column. Wait: This is for the people who didn’t pay? Then I owe you nothing. You are the ones contributing to the end of my career. If you want to pay an exorbitant amount of money to get one extra post a month – which often won’t even be that good – upgrade to a paid subscription here:
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