Reflections from Lenny

No Justification for Silence
Anti-Defamation League Dinner
November 21, 1991

For me personally, the thing about ADL that is most different is that we make a difference. When others complain and lament and shake their heads about the David Dukes and the Plymouth Rock swastikas, ADL is doing more than just complaining. We're doing something about it. We're acting. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said, "It is important to feel anxiety, but it is sinful to wallow in despair."

I had to struggle in these remaining few minutes about what I was going to say to you, because we've done so much, because we help people in trouble, but also because the events of the last few weeks have been so disturbing. Golda Meir once wrote that if Jews weren't paranoid, we'd be crazy. Well, I don't think that we're either. But tonight, on my way over here, I wasn't really paying attention. I was crossing the street, and I almost got sideswiped by a car that was going a little bit too fast, by the office. And as I jumped back, nearly dropping half this speech, I realized that if I had to end my job tonight, what would I have done to really make a difference in a world that's getting increasingly more difficult, in a world in which the rights of minorities and people of color and Jews are not being taken seriously enough?

So tonight I want to spend a few minutes to talk not just about the other programs we do, but about the problem of anti-Semitism. It's not a new problem. This tenacious hatred of Jews, this singling out of Jews for harassment and discrimination and persecution and group libel, for no other reason than the fact that we're Jewish, it's not proper dinner conversation, I know, and I apologize for that. . . .

But a new tradition of responding to anti-Semitism by blaming the victim seems to be in vogue, and it's as frightening as the popularity and acceptance of those who engage in race-baiting, scapegoating, and stereotyping [that] the ADL is dealing with every day. It's called: "blame the Jews for having the nerve to respond to people attacking us." A police chief calls anti-Semitic graffiti isolated. "There's no problem here," he says. Well, ADL responds. We tell him there are skinheads operating in this town. His response: "You're creating anti-Semitism by complaining. You're overreacting." A school administrator refuses to address a problem of anti-Semitic graffiti and vandalism in the high school. ADL gets involved, and we're told they don't need our help. They don't need other people. We people are always trying to tell other people what to do. We're causing problems. Folks, they already had the problem, and ADL comes in to resolve the problem.

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More reflections from Lenny
You Must Make a Difference
Taking Your Life Back
Defeating the Ambush of Hate

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