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Thank you, Diane [Glazer].  Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. 

This last week has been a somber reminder of the handiwork of hate.  On November 9 and November 10 we commemorated Kristallnacht.  Anti-Semitism of 60 years ago began with the breaking of glass, with the shattering of the windows and the doors on Jewish houses of worship, and it was followed by the burning of books, Jewish books, sacred books.  And the world was silent, and the world did not reply, and so it went from broken glass to burning books to burning bodies. 

It was also last week that we, the Jewish people, remembered and commemorated the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, for he, too, was a victim of hate.  That tragedy reminded us, the Jewish people, that while we have been on the receiving end of hatred and prejudice we are not immune, we are not immune. 

Prejudice is a strange phenomenon—it isn't prejudiced.  Those who hate Jews, hate Blacks, Hispanics, gays and anyone who doesn't conform to their narrow twisted idea of what an American should be, a Frenchman should be, a German should be, or a Russian should be.  Hate is transitory and when it rears its ugly head no one is safe of the evil it causes.  In the summer of 1999 when the bigot who attacked Jews in Chicago, who went out to burn synagogues and attack Jews on their way to prayer on Friday evening, on his way to carry out his anti-Semitism he passed an African-American coach, Ricky Burkstone, and he murdered him.  [And you will remember] the bigot here in L.A. who invaded and shot up and tried to kill Jewish children in a community center, and on his way out met a Filipino postal worker and murdered him.

I am, as you heard, a survivor of the hate that almost destroyed the world in the 20^th century.  I was born in Poland in 1940.  My family fled when the Nazis roared across Poland and when they took my parents to the ghettoes and concentration camps they left me in the care of my Catholic nanny.  That courageous woman, with the help of a priest, changed my name, baptized me and brought me up, and for the first five years of my life I believed I was a Catholic.  Sometimes miracles happen.  Both my parents survived and returned for me and after five years of wandering through displaced persons camps all over Europe we finally came to this country.  When I was old enough to begin to try to fathom what it was that I had survived I pondered some very difficult questions of why – universal questions of why – why did it happen?  Why did it happen to us, the Jewish people?  Why was the world silent? why didn't the Almighty intervene? and why, why did 1.5 million children perish? 

And then there were other questions – very personal questions of why.  Why did I survive?  My parents struggled with those questions day in and day out.  And each one of us who survived in order to protect our sanity developed a rationale, a rationale for our survival.  Maybe my father survived so that he could write history, so he could record the life that was destroyed the heroism and the spiritual heroism of that time—maybe that's why he survived.  I don't know why I survived.  Maybe so that I would have an opportunity to devote my life to fight that evil that almost destroyed me along with a 1.5 million children and fight the kind of hate that murdered 6 million Jews and killed Gypsies and gays and the handicapped, all victims of hate, and maybe to give me an opportunity to wage war against the vicious words that led to these deeds against the killer and soul destroyer that is hate.

I have been privileged.  Privileged to spend my adult life battling to make prejudice, bigotry, discrimination, racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance unacceptable, undemocratic and un-American.   The Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoeller summed up the lessons of the Holocaust in the most poignant and painful words which we need to repeat again and again.  He said, "First they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I was a Christian.  Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.  And then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant and then they came for me and there was no one, no one left to speak up.  "The world still has not learned, not learned that the sin of omission, the sin of silence, the sin of looking away in the face of bigotry is as dangerous as the sins of commission.  I hope that we learn it now and teach it to all those whose lives we touch. 

I have been honored and privileged to serve the Anti-Defamation League, as Diane spelled out, an institution devoted to spot thing the defamation of the Jewish people but also to securing justice and fair treatment for all citizens alike.  We have always understood that no group is secure unless everyone is secure, and so we spoke out when black churches burned in the South and we collected letters and dollars to support those congregations.  We spoke out when ethnic cleansing was rampant in Kosovo and established a fund to help the refugees.  We spoke out when the Taliban ordered Afghani Hindus to wear an identity label on their clothes, grimly reminiscent of the yellow stars the Nazis forced Jews to wear.  We spoke out when James Byrd was dragged behind a truck in Texas until his body was torn to pieces because he was black, and we spoke out when Matthew Shepard was beaten and burned and left to die on a fence in Wyoming because he was gay.  We spoke out when innocent Arabs and Muslims were targeted in the wake of September 11.  We spoke out because it was an absolute moral imperative to do so.  We spoke out because it was simply unthinkable not to do so. 

I wrote a book, my first book.  I’ve contributed to four others but this is my first book.  I was told by some of my friends and colleagues that I should write a book before I peaked.  I wasn't sure whether it was a compliment or a putdown but the ADL engaged an agent.  We submitted a text, an outline, and we contracted to write a book—an autobiography— and I struggled with it.  I couldn’t get anywhere so I put it away.  Then, in the last two years, I decided that there is a need to speak out and so I began to write a book about a situation I never believed in my lifetime there would be a need to write about.  For me, I believed that anti-Semitism was a historical fact of the past, a point of reference to learn from, to teach, to understand.  But all of a sudden anti-Semitism was not a point of history, it was a reality.  It was a current event. 

And more so, as things developed, I began to believe the Jews today, as a people, are more vulnerable than they've been since World War II.  I finished writing the book about four or five months ago and when I look back it's always with that question, "Should I have?"  What's frightening is, had I not finished writing, the events of the last three or four months only reinforced how serious the issue of anti-Semitism globally is.  I did not believe that in my lifetime I would witness a Jew being killed because he was a Jew.  Yes, in history for 2,000 years Jews were killed because they were Jews.  The crime of six million Jews in Europe was that they were Jews, not that they had property, not that they had land, not because they challenged "isms" and philosophy, their crime was that they were Jewish.  [We woke] one morning and saw on the Internet a picture of Danny Pearl captured and kidnapped because he was an American and a journalist, but slaughtered because he was a Jew.  Those who butchered him video-taped his last moment for the purpose of recruiting others.  Judith Pearl, who's a member of your community, believes that Danny volunteered those last words.  And whether he volunteered them or whether they were forced on him, the chilling words of "I am a Jew.  My mother is a Jew, my father is a Jew" as the last words in Danny's life should bring shivers to all of us who thought that these things were in the past. 

We don't see it, you haven't heard it, but in the last six weeks two Jews were killed in Moscow and two Jews were killed in Casablanca and two Jews were killed in Istanbul, not by accident.  Four of them on the way back and forth from synagogues selected and targeted because they were identifiably Jewish. 

And would we have believed that in our lifetime we would find a situation in Europe that every major city in Western Europe primarily, but also parts of Eastern Europe, are witness to violent anti-Semitic excesses.  Would we have believed that the good people of Europe say to their Jewish neighbors and friends, "You know what?  Maybe to avoid anti-Semitism, maybe you should be less Jewish, maybe you should change the signs on the school buses taking your children to day school, maybe you should change the lettering of the Jewish institutions.”  They're not telling their Jewish friends, "Be as Jewish as you wish.  We will protect you, defend you, and embrace you."  No, their advice is.  "Be less Jewish."  Ironically some French Jews have admitted they've become less Jewish, don't attend synagogue, have taken their Jewish kids out of Jewish day schools and others in order to raise their kids in a safer environment as Jews, have taken them to Israel.  How ironic.  In Israel, where it takes a hero to get on a bus, it takes a hero to go sit in a coffee shop and yet some French Jews [go there] in order to protect their children from anti-Semitism. 

And then we hear in Europe, "You know, if you really want to lower anti-Semitism maybe you should criticize Israel publicly, maybe you should criticize Sharon,” and that's a whole new dimension.  I remember not too long ago when Jews traveled to Europe they would visit the galleries, the historical sites, the cathedrals and then they would visit the remnants of the synagogues and the would come back and say, "my God, there isn't a Jewish institution in all of Europe not protected by militia, by police, by military."  And in those synagogues that are functioning you have volunteers, Jews who volunteer to protect the congregation.  Last Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there wasn't a synagogue in these continental United States, from Corpus Christi to Alaska, from Texas to Alaska, that did not have policemen and security guards and Jews who volunteered not to pray but to protect the others who were praying.

There are two questions – two questions that I have found traveling through Europe asked by some very fine people.  "Mr. Foxman, can't we criticize Israel without being called anti-Semitic?  Can't we be anti-Zionist without being called anti-Semitic?"  And the answer is, "Yes."  Israel is a democracy.  Israel is probably the most criticized country in the world, per square kilometer, per square citizen.  There is more criticism of Israel within Israel than in any other country in the world.  It's a democracy, sure, sure you can challenge and you can question and you can ask, but if you set a standard of behavior, that you want Israel to abide by and therefore criticize if it doesn't, we have a right to say, "Who else have you asked?  Who else have you set that standard of behavior to?"  If you call Sharon "Hitler" and if you call the Israelis "Nazis" and if you say Ramallah, as the poet laureate who came from Portugal visited Ramallah and said, this is Auschwitz, take your choice, he's the biggest ignoramus on the face of the earth or he's a bigot. 

And if the college students, today in an effort of activism, want to do something to bring justice and human rights to the world, God bless them.  And if the way to do it is to finger and pinpoint the countries that violate human rights and then ask the administrations to disinvest, fine.  I'm waiting to see the list of human rights violators.  There's only one country on that list – it's called Israel.  There is no Saudi Arabia, there is no Zimbabwe, there is no China, there is no Cuba, there is no Russia, and there is no Pakistan, or Afghanistan, or Iran.  The students on the campuses have decided to bring justice to the world by singling out Israel as the human rights violator in the world.  I beg your pardon – that's not criticism, that's anti-Semitism.

Almost three years ago, there was Durban.  We should have understood that Durban was new phenomena of an old phenomena.  While Durban was almost the most magnificent event of our lifetime as we turned this century, this millennium, 181 nations of the world determined that it's time to come together to set standards, standards of behavior vis-à-vis racism.  And how beautiful a thought that Durban is in South Africa, for there racism almost destroyed a people and a nation.  And we should have known that something was wrong when a preliminary conference was held in Tehran.  In Tehran, nations gathered to plan the agenda for Durban on racism, in Tehran where Israelis weren't permitted and Americans weren't permitted and the good people of the non-government organizations said it was "okay we'll protect everybody's interest." 

And what happened in Durban was that no standards were set against racism and efforts were made to delegitimize Israel, to make Israel the Jew of nations and Zionism became again a dirty word.  Well, you know what?  You can be anti-Zionist and not be an anti-Semite, but you'd better also be against Palestinian nationalism and French nationalism and German nationalism and American nationalism because that's what nationalism is about.  A little bit racist because what nationalism says is "We will determine.  We will determine our flag, our borders, our immigration policies, our song, and that's exclusionary, it isn't open to everybody.  But why is it that the only liberation movement that is racist is Jewish liberation?  The Palestinians, who envision a democratic state with a small "d" ask them how many Jews they foresee living within the borders of the new democratic Palestinian entity that hopefully in our lifetime will be led by someone who, as Golda Meier said, "Peace will come when Palestinian mothers love their children more than hate ours."  When they love their children more than they hate our children there will be a Palestinian state.

A month ago on the world stage, stepped a gentleman by the name of Mahathir Mohamad.  Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, not new in the annals of anti-Semitism.  If you log onto the ADL website you'll find a long history of anti-Semitic expressions even going to the absurdity of blocking a concert because Ernest Bloch was Jewish and his view might contaminate Muslim ears.  And so the fact that he would spout anti-Semitism was not new but there was something new.  Mahathir Mohamad who espoused and preached anti-Semitism for years was never challenged, was never embarrassed, except by us and Jews around the world who would always raise an outcry.  It was at the Davos conference where I guess he took the lesson that there is a greater tolerance for his intolerance, and if he can get away with it when meeting heads of state and entertaining all the great pundits of the world every year at Davos, why can't he do what he did?  What did he do?  For the first time since Hitler, for the first time since a head of state spoke in anti-Semitic terms, for the first time in 60 years, Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, had the arrogance to say what Hitler said, "The Jews, they control the world.  The Jews have mercenaries out there fighting their wars and that's why we, 1.3 billion Muslims have failed because 12 million Jews control the world, control our destiny and the time has come, the time has come for victory, victory of Islam over the Jews." 

I heard a report today, an interview with a spokesman of the Iraqi council, who said, "We need to get rid of the Americans" and the journalist said to him, "but the Americans liberated you," and he said, "No, they're not Americans, they're Jews. "How quickly Mahathir Mohamad made his way to Baghdad.  It wasn't too long ago when 60 Minutes interviewed Ramzi Yousef, the one responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center and they said to him, "What were your plans?" and he said, "We came to America, we were going to go to Brooklyn.  That's where the Jews are."  And they said, "So you changed your target?" and he looked at her quizzically and they said, "Well, you went to the World Trade Center."  "Oh, no," he said, "we didn't change our target, that's where the Jews are."

Mahathir spoke to an international forum as a head of state, his swan song as a leader.  In attendance were 57 nations determined, not by geography, not by philosophy, not by public policy, but determined by religion.  You couldn't get in unless you had that card.  So Senegal and Nigeria and Saudi Arabia and Libya and Iran were all there, and they stood and applauded, and I guess it shouldn't have surprised us, and I think even of our friend King Abdullah of Jordan, it would be too much to ask of him to stand up and walk out.  While it's been almost a month we're still waiting and we've written to all of them asking them to disavow and to disown.  But it was worse.  Europeans who are gathered in Brussels at a meeting of foreign ministers, after 2-1/2 hours of debate were ready to issue a statement, which called Mahathir's pronouncement anti-Semitic, and I was told by a foreign minister in attendance how tough the argument was for Europeans to use the word "anti-Semitism" but he said the good people won.  Only they didn't win for long.  The French, through Mr. Chirac, and the Greeks, through their Prime Minister, intervened, and I challenge you to go on any website to find a statement condemning Mahathir.  You'll fine one mealy-mouthed and empty because it was expediently unacceptable to condemn that kind of anti-Semitism. 

9/11 reminded us that even in this great age of communication, yes, it's a vehicle for knowledge and education, but it's also a super-highway for hate and misinformation and disinformation.  Do you know that one-third of the world today believes that Israel is responsible for 9/11?  That 4,000 Jews were saved because Sharon and the Israelis sent a message?  When we started hearing about that we chuckled and we thought how absurd.  I was just interviewed last week for German T.V. because 60 per cent of the youth in Germany believe that the Jews did it and the best sellers in France and in Belgium are books that blame the Jewish people. 

I know Kofi Annan may be your guest of honor but we've written to him two or three letters in the last week.  I thought I read and studied about the United Nations in a different manner than it is today.  I thought I believed that the Secretary-General of the United Nations is supposed to be that neutral element, that one person who is supposed to bring parties together and not take sides.  We call on the Secretary-General to embrace a peace plan.  In a democracy, good people go to Geneva, but Israel is a democracy, it's a government elected by the people, it's a government responsible for war and peace.  How dare he stand up in front of the community of nations and say, "I like this peace plan?"  Where's the neutrality?  Has he dared to do it with Sri Lanka, with Sudan, with India and Pakistan?  Why?  Why is it okay Mr. Secretary-General to stand there and condemn Israel for violation of international law when Israel destroyed three empty building in Gaza –three empty buildings that were used as observation posts in order to send mortars to kill innocent men, women and children?  Why is the Jewish state to be treated differently? 

And now the last item.  An E.U. poll – Europeans from time to time do a poll which they call "the Euro barometer" and every once in a while they pick a subject.  Well, two weeks ago the subject was Iraq and peace in the world and the question was as follows:  "For each of the following countries tell me if in your opinion it presents or not a threat to peace in the world."  I read it to you because it's now being explained that this was too difficult a question, too sophisticated, too ambiguous.  I don't know what's ambiguous about it.  It would have been ambiguous if you had to decide what countries to pick but it was made very easy for 7,500 Europeans, and they were asked again "For each of the following countries, tell me which in your opinion presents or does not present a threat to the peace of the world" and the countries were:  Somalia, Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, U.S., North Korea, Iran and Israel.  59 per cent of Europeans said "Israel" is the greatest threat to world peace.  I don't know whether to laugh or to cry.  Where have reason and logic and rationale gone?  And so I met with the President of the European Union, Mr. Prodi, and we had this disagreement.  I said we’re sad but not surprised, and he said he was saddened, shocked and surprised.  So now we have a conference in Geneva in about two months to find out why.  I can save him all the time and the money.  If you hit on Israel, as Israel has been hit on with intensively bias for two or three years in Europe, then this should not surprise you.  This should not surprise you.

So, where does this leave us?  Where does this leave us?  So it's worse, so it's serious, so it's threatening, so what's the answer?  What do we do?  How do we respond?  Well, first and foremost we need to understand, we need to be aware, we need to be vigilant, for we know that for bigotry and prejudice and anti-Semitism and racism and hatred there is no antidote.  It is a virus, a virus that becomes virulent from time to time and there is no vaccine and there is no antidote.  But there are two responses:  one is education, for we know that children are not born with hate, they are taught to hate.  Bigotry is not something passed on in the genes.  Bigotry is an acquired trait, and that's the good news because if it's taught it can be untaught, and I believe we must, we must, increase on a crisis level the education against bigotry and prejudice and racism and anti-Semitism for it almost destroyed the civilized world.  And for those who say, "Well, that's Jews and anti-Semitism, and what does it matter to me?" I think it's important to remind them that the Jews are the canary in the coal mine of democracy, of stability, of decency.  Take a look at any country.  See how they treat their Jews, see how they talk about Jews, whether they hate them or not and you can measure the level of civility and democracy and respect for individuals in that country.

But there is another response.  A much simpler and much more direct response and we've learned, we learned this response from the same place that we learned how deadly hate can be.  For in the period of the Holocaust, as Diane mentioned, in the midst of hell, in the midst of hatred we saw what good people can do.  For wherever and whenever and however people stood up to say "no," and whether it's Raul Wallenberg who saved 100,000, Jews could you imagine if there were 100,000 Raul Wallenbergs?, we wouldn't have had the Holocaust.  Or as for Schindler, who was not the greatest guy that you'd want as a friend or a neighbor or a relative, he had the decency, the civility, and the courage to save 1,200 Jews.  And it wasn't the cradles of civilization and philosophy and history and arts and sculpture that wrote the magnificent chapter in their histories but it was Albania and Bulgaria.  Albania and Bulgaria, we make fun of the Balkans, but the Balkans wrote a magnificent chapter for civility and for humanity: for the Bulgarians saved all their Jews.

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