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3d ago

Abe Foxman, Longtime ADL Leader and Holocaust Survivor, Dies at 86

His five-decade career turned the Anti-Defamation League into a leading watchdog on extremism.

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2006 file photo, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. group that fights racism and anti-Semitism, delivers a speech after he was awarded with the medal of Knight in the Legion of Honor order by French President Jacques Chirac, during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)
FILE - In this June 17, 2015 photo, Anti-Defamation League National Director Abe Foxman, center, greets ADL education committee co-chair Charlotte Frank, right, and Fred Malek during a reception for a dinner in Foxman's honor in New York. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 25, 2004 file photo, Abe Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, speaks to reporters at the ADL's office in New York. (AP Photo/David Karp, File)
FILE - In this June 17, 2015 photo, Jonathan Greenblatt, left, incoming national director for the Anti-Defamation League, talks with Abe Foxman, current director of the ADL, during a reception for a special dinner in Foxman's honor in New York. AP Photo/Julie Jacobson, File)

Overview

  • The Anti-Defamation League confirmed Sunday that Foxman died at 86, drawing tributes from ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Israel’s president Isaac Herzog.
  • Foxman spent 50 years at the ADL, joining in 1965 and serving as national director from 1987 to 2015 as the group expanded its education, monitoring and law‑enforcement training work.
  • He was born in 1940 in present-day Belarus and survived the Holocaust after a Polish Catholic nanny hid and baptized him before he reunited with his parents and moved to the United States in 1950.
  • In retirement he remained outspoken on U.S. politics and Israel, endorsing candidates such as Kamala Harris in 2024 and warning about antisemitism from the left and the right.
  • His public service included appointments to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council by multiple presidents and a term as vice chair of New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.