Aw, man, I am so jealous: J. Weekly staff scribe extraordinaire Joe Eskenazi got to sit down punim-to-punim with ADL director Abraham Foxman a coupla weeks back. If I were still working there, I’d have had him sign my copy of the AP Style book.
Eskenazi gives Foxman a platform to defend himself against that sh*tty NY Times profile of him, which branded him as a pinky-ring wielding, “one-man Sanhedrin” psycho. In spite of being accused of “stifling free speech,” Foxman continues to uphold his dogged (okay, slightly rabid) quest to root out anti-Semitism in all its forms, even if he has to take a few insults to the gut.
(And just so ya know, he wears his wedding ring on his pinky because he put on some weight after the chuppah, but wanted to keep the same ring he exchanged with his wife, Golda, so many years ago. See? Such a teddy bear, a romantic even, that Abey.)
He’s quick to point out that no matter how annoying you might think he is, he’s not the bad guy. If you think he’s too overzealous with the “AS” word, how would you like the job of confronting Mel Gibson, Jimmy Carter and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Even though you and I know differently, much of the world still thinks that some magical cabal of Jewish Lex Luthers controls it, and
Abe Foxman has spent decades fighting such dangerous superstitions. You don’t think he’d rather retire and lounge on a beach in Boca with Golda? But he can’t, ’cause a superhero’s work is never done. (Did ya hear the Ku Klux Klan is back?)
To say the world is under the control of the Jewish lobby, or the universities, or that the Jewish community controls what goes on on college campuses if it wasnt so serious, itd be really funny, he said.
At least he’s keeping his sense of humor.