'Jews have to meet in secret at DNC', says Holocaust survivor, ex-ADL head Foxman

Holocaust survivor and former Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman expressed concern on Wednesday that the situation for Jews in the US had deteriorated to the point that they had to meet in secret at events like the Democratic Party National Convention.

Foxman’s concern came after a Tuesday Agudath Israel of America DNC event on rising antisemitism against Orthodox Jews was disrupted by anti-Israel activists.

“Brick by brick, wall by wall, Zionism will fall,” the activists chanted in a video published by Agudath Israel.

Foxman, who survived the Holocaust by being hidden and raised by his Catholic Polish nanny, said on X that he knew in his heart that “in the future it will be better, for Jews in America then it is today. But I fear it will never be the same. After 50 years fighting antisemitism in America, I could not have imagined a time Jews would have to meet in secret locations in Chicago at DNC.”

The ADL noted that the event was not about Zionism, and that Agudath Israel had been targeted for being “visibly Jewish.”

“Targeting a group of people simply for the offense of being visibly Jewish is antisemitic,” Foxman’s successor Jonathan Greenblatt said on X. “Protesting an event about protecting the Jewish community is antisemitic. 

Collectively holding all Jews responsible for something that you don’t like in the Middle East is antisemitic.”

Atlantic writer Yair Rosenberg reported on Tuesday that Jewish events at the DNC had to be held at undisclosed locations under heavy security.

Foxman on Wednesday denounced the anti-Israel activists that had been marching and protesting in Chicago since the beginning of the DNC as being supporters of Hamas and antisemitism, and that they should not be presented otherwise.

Protesting 'for hate speech' 

“Why can’t good people see the truth?” said Foxman. “The protesters are not for freedom of speech, they are for hate speech. They are not for peace, they are for destroying Israel.”

Foxman praised President Joe Biden, who spoke at the DNC late Monday night. The ex-ADL head said that Biden had opposed Russian aggression against Ukraine, committed the US government to fight antisemitism, and supported Israel when it fell under attack on October 7.

The Jewish leader’s warm words on Tuesday were in sharp contrast to his words of warning for Vice President Kamala Harris, that if she were open to consideration for an arms embargo against Israel she would “lose significant support from American Jews and Democrats that support Israel!”