Holocaust survivor, American immigrant and the face of Jewish civil rights for a generation – Abraham (“Abe”) Foxman passed away on May 10 at the age of 86. For nearly three decades, he led the Anti-Defamation League, becoming the most recognized Jewish American civil-rights voice of his era. He was received by popes, presidents and prime ministers.
Foxman called out antisemitism wherever he found it—from the left, right and center, from governments to Hollywood—without asking anyone’s permission. He believed that people could change. And he proved that you could criticize Israel, disagree with its leaders and still be one of its most credible defenders. At a moment when this kind of moral clarity is in short supply, the Jewish world has lost one of its giants.
The hidden child who became America’s Jewish conscience
Foxman’s life was shaped by survival from its earliest days. He was born to Polish Jewish parents in 1940 in what is now Belarus. Foxman called his birth the “wrong time and place to be born a Jewish kid.” When the Nazis ordered the Jews of Vilnius into the city’s ghetto in 1941, his parents made an impossible decision: entrusting their infant son to his Polish Catholic nanny. She baptized him and raised Foxman as a Catholic child. Her actions saved his life; 14 of his relatives did not survive the Holocaust.
When his parents miraculously survived the Holocaust, they fought to reclaim their son from his nanny, prevailing in what Foxman later described as “the first custody battle in Soviet-liberated Europe.” In 1950, the family immigrated to America, settling in New York City. Foxman attended a yeshivah, earned a degree from City College of New York and a law degree from New York University. He joined the Anti-Defamation League straight out of law school in 1965 and only left when he retired.
Building a movement against hate
Foxman rose from staff lawyer to the ADL’s longest-serving national director—a role he held from 1987 to 2015. Under his leadership, the organization transformed into one of the most influential civil rights institutions in the United States, monitoring antisemitism across America, advocating for anti-discrimination legislation and running anti-bias training programs for schools and law enforcement.
He counseled presidents of both major political parties, prime ministers and three popes.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog hailed him as “a prominent, distinguished force in the American Jewish community and a bridge between Israel and the Diaspora.”
He called out critics from every direction
Throughout his career, Foxman believed that no relationship, ideology or political affiliation exempted anyone from accountability. When public figures made antisemitic remarks, he confronted them directly. And when their repentance was genuine, he accepted it. He stated: “If you don’t let them change, then you become the bigot.”
Foxman retained his place as a leading voice even after his retirement. In 2024, he condemned President Donald Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally in New York City for its “hate, racism and antisemitism.” More recently, he denounced the 40 U.S. Senate Democrats who voted against providing bulldozers and bombs to Israel during the Iran war. He warned that the “progressive socialist wing is a calamity for the Democratic Party, if it will not be contained and stopped.”
Last year, he stressed the dangers posed by the far left and far right: “The 20th century history of Nazism and communism should be an alarm bell as to just how dangerous this is, and not just for us Jews, but for all of society, for all who care about democracy, individual freedom and dignity.”
He was equally willing to criticize Israel and its leaders when he believed they were wrong, and he did from a place of unquestioned commitment to Israel’s defense. Foxman publicly opposed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 address to Congress on Iran. He viewed it as an inappropriate intervention in American politics.
That record of criticism only deepened his credibility. Throughout his career, he defended Israel unapologetically in diplomatic meetings, on television and on university campuses. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar shared how Foxman “devoted his life to defending the Jewish people and strengthening the bond between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide.”
Warnings left unanswered
Foxman warned 11 years ago about many of the issues still plaguing the Jewish community across America and around the world today. He noticed that Jewish students on American campuses were removing their kippahs and tucking away their Star of David necklaces, hiding their Jewish identity to avoid harassment. He also observed that 2015 was the worst year for European Jews since the Holocaust.
Foxman concluded that the fight against anti-Jewish hate was far from over and that “nobody at the ADL would be retiring any time soon.”
A decade later, the problem has only grown.
A legacy that must live on ...
Foxman’s passing drew an outpouring of tributes from leaders across the Jewish world. Jonathan Greenblatt, current national director and CEO of the ADL, stated: “America and the Jewish people have lost a moral voice, a passionate advocate for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and a remarkable leader.”
William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that “every conversation with Abe Foxman reinforced the idea that leadership requires courage, urgency and the willingness to speak out when others remain silent.”
Met Council CEO David Greenfield called him “the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be.”
More than 500 family, friends, current and former ADL officials and national Jewish leaders gathered at the Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan to pay their respects to Foxman. Eulogies were given by Susan Rice, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Sara Bloomfield, executive director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; and other dignitaries.
May his memory be a blessing.
Points to consider:
1. Moral clarity on antisemitism is what most of today’s leaders are missing.
As antisemitism surges globally and institutions increasingly excuse it when politically convenient, Abraham Foxman held one standard for his entire career: antisemitism is antisemitism, regardless of who is doing it or where it comes from. Former U.S. ambassador for antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt praised his commitment to “condemning Jew-haters from the right, left and center,” without calculating the political cost. That standard is exactly what is missing today. Leaders across the political spectrum routinely ignore anti-Jewish hate when it comes from their own parties, politicians and allies. They hedge, equivocate and stay silent. Foxman never did.
2. People are willing to change, but only if we are willing to talk to them.
Foxman confronted antisemitism wherever he found it and accepted genuine apologies. He criticized civil-rights leader and political Rev. Jesse Jackson for his antisemitic comments and support of antisemites, as well as PLO leader Yasser Arafat and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. He also watched him change and eventually called on him when Jews needed allies. Foxman asserted that “if people can understand that they can come around from being a bigot, then I think it serves us. It serves them. It serves the community.” He never stopped reaching out. In an era when people increasingly refuse to talk to those who disagree with them, his refusal to write people off may be his most impactful legacy.
3. His life was the American story.
Foxman was born into hiding—a Jewish infant baptized Catholic to survive the Holocaust—and came to America as a refugee with his parents and little else. He died as one of the most recognized civil-rights voices in the country. That arc is the American story: arrive with almost nothing, build something that lasts and refuse to disappear. The question he leaves behind is not how to mourn him; it is whether we are willing to preserve his legacy. He did his part, now it is our turn.
