National director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman will be retiring soon but, true to form, the assertive 75-year-old is going out with a warning.
Looking back at his 50 years of service to the anti-hate watchdog, he said: "Fifty years ago, prognosticators said: 'Antisemitism, it's a historical fact of the past. You don't have to worry about it.' They said: 'In 50 years, Israel will be a normal nation among all the nations.' Boy, how wrong they were! Israel has become 'the Jew among the nations'."
Mr Foxman explained: "What everybody else can do, Israel can't do. Tell me a country in the world that can't decide its capital, has to defend its right to defend itself, has to deal with double and triple standards in terms of being told what it should do, how it should do it, who it can do business with, who it should play soccer with, what person can come and sing."
On Western Europe, Mr Foxman warned: "Today, it is a clear and present danger. We're getting close to a situation where Hitler will have a posthumous victory for a Judenrein [Jew-free] Europe, where Jews, for the first time, are thinking about exit strategies. Jews are removing their kippas. Kids are taking off their Stars of David."
Addressing Eastern Europe, Mr Foxman said: "There aren't that many Jews left; but antisemitism is still a growing phenomenon. There the governments are trying to keep antisemitism alive."
Mr Foxman said that America was "not immune. You may like the administration or not. But hey, this is the only country in the world that mandates ambassadors to report on antisemitism. Not only does America say Israel has a right to defend itself, it sends Israel the arms to defend itself while Europe won't even let the planes refuel when America sends arms to help Israel defend itself."
Mr Foxman pinpointed the organised US Jewish community as the pivotal difference. "The American Jewish community in 1945 was gornicht ["nothing" in Yiddish]. It didn't have a voice. Today, we are a community that has influence."
Mr Foxman added: "As a survivor I believe in 'never again', and survivors say 'never again'. But they're not really sure that it's 'never again'."
