Foxman led the ADL for nearly three decades, serving as national director from 1987 until his retirement in 2015. Following his departure from the position, he continued to hold the title of national director emeritus until his passing.
Born on May 1, 1940, in territory that is today part of Belarus, Foxman survived the Holocaust as an infant after his parents placed him in the care of a Polish Catholic nanny in an effort to save his life during the Nazi occupation.
He remained hidden during the war years before reuniting with his parents in 1944. The family later immigrated to the United States in 1950.
After earning a law degree from New York University School of Law, Foxman joined the Anti-Defamation League and steadily advanced through the organization’s leadership ranks before ultimately being chosen to head the group in 1987.
Under Foxman’s leadership, the ADL expanded its role as a leading national organization focused on fighting antisemitism, extremism, and discrimination.
In 2015, Foxman stepped down from his longtime position and was succeeded by Jonathan Greenblatt.
He was the child in the Abie Rotenberg “Man from Vilna” song (we danced round and round in circles as if the world had done no wrong…)
(The man in the Man from Vilna song was Rabbi Leo Goldman, a Rav in Detroit, Michigan)
The stench of his deceased corpse is overwhelming.
The stench of the personality who feels like making such comments when a person who did not spend their life fighting Torah dies is overwhelming
Abe Foxman was famous for Leading the ADL but he was less famous for being the boy in the Abie Rottenberg song “The man from Vilna”.
When the non Jewish Family who took him in during the war, hiding him and thereby saving his life brought him to the towns Shul when they heard there were Jewish American soldiers staying there for Simchas Torah to join in the festivities. While there a soldier realized that although there were no scrolls to dance with there one boy there was the future of to borrow a phrase from the song “a past so torn apart”.
Yehuda Zichro Baruch.
Irrelevant.
There were certain instances when our community’s messaging and values did not necessarily align with the Niftar. Nevertheless, Mr. Foxman A”H had the right intentions, to protect Jewish communities across the world from becoming vulnerable once again.
He is most famous, in our circles, as being the young boy held as a Sefer Torah post the Holocaust on Simchas Torah. This poignant song was written by R’ Abie Rotenberg and had actually been a feature of one of R’ Yoel Gold’s powerful videos.
May his Neshama have an Aliyah!
and his father was from the town of Baranovich, and both his father and uncle learned by Reb Elchonon, and his uncle then went to Mir and Shanghai,