Say It Ain't So, Abraham Foxman

Dear Mr. Foxman:

You are the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, which describes itself as “the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism.” Your organization accordingly speaks out often on this matter.

For example, on February 12, 2003 you asked Greek Prime Minister Constantine Simitis to “set a tone of tolerance” in Greece, referring to how “Blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric in the Greek press or by public officials is excused as legitimate expressions of criticism of Israel.” You noted that “such articles and depictions in the media create an environment of hostility toward Israel and Jews in Greece.”

Yet the Anti-Defamation League ignores the incitement of such hostility in Cuba.

Here are some recent headlines in Cuba’s main newspaper, Granma International (state-controlled like all Cuban media):

An especially anti-Semitic media functionary is radio commentator Eduardo Dimas, who on March 3 claimed that “American and Jewish money seek to expand its global reach.” On April 29 he claimed that “the replacement of Yassir Arafat is part of the U.S.-Israeli plan to impose the power of the empire.”

With his assertions of a Jewish plot for global economic and political control, Dimas is in the virulent tradition of Joseph Goebbels and “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

The Cuban media’s anti-Semitism reflects the autocrat who subjugates Cuba. For decades Fidel Castro has accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians and supported Arab terrorists and regimes like Iraq under Saddam Hussein. (Castro saved Hussein’s life in the 1980s when he sent a surgeon to remove a tumor in his back.)

Books Cuba has published on Israel include “Zionism: The Fascism of the Star of David” and “The Other Face: The Truth about the Secret Relationships between Nazism and Zionism” – the latter a work of Holocaust denial by the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas.

Cuban Jews cannot speak out against Castro’s demonization of Israel. As Cuban Jew Tony Fune has courageously said, “I understand that we have no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press, no freedom to travel, no freedom to choose how we will educate our children. And I understand that's not right.”

Imagine the stigma of being a Jew in Cuba.

Imagine how you would feel if a newspaper compared Israel to Nazi Germany and you could not object.

Imagine how you would feel if a radio host talked about “Jewish money seeking to expand its global reach” and you could not object.

“Say it ain’t so, Mr. President,” you concluded in a 1985 letter to Ronald Reagan before his visit to a German military cemetery that contained members of the SS.

Now I say to you: Say it ain’t so, Mr. Foxman.

Say you’re not indifferent to the barrage of venom Cuban Jews endure.

Say you’re not indifferent to the Castro regime’s incitement of anti-Semitism.

Our captive brethren in Cuba need solidarity. Where is yours?