Anti Defamation League

To those who have wondered whatever became of David Lehrer, I bring good news. He's back. I am speaking metaphorically here. Lehrer actually never left town, but was booted unceremoniously from his position as West Coast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. When I say he's back, it is in a somewhat different form, but with the same altruistic aim. He wants us all to get along. The booting was done three months ago by national ADL director Abraham Foxman, or "Abominable Abe," as he is known in certain Southern California circles.

David Lehrer, the Los Angeles regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, has been abruptly dismissed from his post after 27 years with the nation's premier Jewish civil rights organization. The dismissal, delivered Dec. 21 in New York by the league's national director, Abraham Foxman, drew immediate statements of shock, sadness and outrage Monday from Jewish community members in Los Angeles. It was not clear why Lehrer was dismissed, and he said he was "stunned" by the news.

Re David Lehrer's Sept. 28 letter critical of me and the Holy Land Foundation: It is regrettable that Lehrer attempted to portray me and our nation's most prominent American Muslim charity in such a sinister light. Even more troubling than the accusatory tone of his letter, however, are his false claims about the Holy Land Foundation. The relief organization's offices in Richardson, Texas, were not raided by FBI agents on Sept. 6. Lehrer's false accusations are unfortunately representative of an established pattern of less-than-noble behavior by the Anti-Defamation League.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Los Angeles County rose slightly last year, an increase attributed to more accurate reporting and the publicity triggered by the Granada Hills preschool shooting, according to a report Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The national civil rights group in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents showed that increases in Los Angeles County and California run counter to a national decline in the number of bigoted acts reported against Jews.

Silver pieces believed to have been owned by Adolf Hitler--including lobster forks, ice cream spoons and a cigarette box--are being auctioned on the Internet by a Georgia family. One Jewish group is hoping no one buys them. Jay Kaiman, southeast director for the Anti-Defamation League, said his Atlanta office has received calls from people upset over the auction.

Six years after it was accused of illegal spying, the Anti-Defamation League agreed Monday to a federal court settlement preventing it from obtaining information from any state employee or officer when it knows--or should know--the act is unlawful. The long-debated settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge Richard Paez, marks the final chapter in a suit initiated by former San Francisco Dist. Atty.

With a flurry of hate-fueled attacks hitting California, from arson fires at three Sacramento area synagogues to the rampage last week at a Jewish community center in Granada Hills, religious and law enforcement leaders met Thursday to discuss ways to beef up security at our most vulnerable institutions. They talked of precautions against pipe bombs, surveillance cameras in synagogues and churches, the foibles of white supremacists and the best ways to angle security lights.

Ethnic-rooted shootings in the San Fernando Valley earlier this week--the third incident in a series of anti-Semitic and racist assaults nationwide--have led Orange County Jewish leaders to tighten security at schools and temples. The violence also has led the Anti-Defamation League of Orange County to schedule a special security seminar for 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Jewish Federation in Costa Mesa that will include advice from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.

A Panorama City elementary school principal who said he was beaten unconscious by anti-white assailants had asked the Anti-Defamation League last month for help in dealing with discrimination he was experiencing at the school, a lawyer for the league said Wednesday.