Foxman On Jews for Jesus, Then and Now

Abraham Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, a man who has done terrific and important work exposing anti-Semites over the years -- and no, Andrew, he doesn't criticize people as anti-Semites when they "sneeze into a bagel" -- told the JTA yesterday that "he didn't have much problem with Palin's pastor."  Foxman explained, according to the JTA, that unlike Catholics, "evangelicals never promised to renounce proselytizing. For another, they don't have the same sort of history of violent persecution of Jewish non-believers. For one more, there's no evidence Palin knows or shares those views."

Eleven years ago, for a New York Times Magazine article on the insidious Jews for Jesus campaign organized by the Southern Baptist Convention, Foxman told me this: "'Christians have been trying to make us disappear as Jews for 2,000 years. Now they're trying a different method, which is for them to tell us that you can believe in Jesus and still be Jewish. It's baloney, of course."

I agree with the Foxman of 1997.