A newspaper advertisement bearing the signatures of 400 rabbis who criticized Fox News host Glenn Beck for his televised statements about the Holocaust has itself been criticized by America’s best-known Jewish communal relations group.
Though the advertisement cited statements by the Anti-Defamation League’s national director, Abraham Foxman, it was sponsored by Jewish Funds for Justice (JFSJ), a left-wing group with little history of making public statements on issues like Holocaust discourse. The ad filled a full page of The Wall Street Journal on January 27, and two full pages of the Forward’s February 4 issue.
The spat between the ADL and JFSJ over the propriety of the letter reveals an emerging rift between a group that has long served as a voice for the Jewish community and one that is positioning itself as a left-wing alternative. The ADL has chosen to navigate a nuanced path around the right-wing lightning rod of Fox News — reflexively loathed by many nonconservatives — and this has created an opportunity for JFSJ, which has made Fox the target of an ongoing campaign.