League Leaders Take Issue With Al Martinez Column
As past national chairmen of the Anti-Defamation League, we are intimately familiar with its celebrated fact-finding abilities. We cannot allow the inaccuracies in Al Martinez’s March 28 column (“On a Mission to Foster Peace Among Angelenos”) to go unanswered.
Martinez’s admiration for David Lehrer is justified, and we share it. His claims of Lehrer’s allegedly unique knowledge are not justified. The information Martinez received from Lehrer on the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, David Duke, other extremists, hate on the Internet and all other racist activities and organizations other than that which was local to Southern California emanated from ADL’s national office, not the ADL Los Angeles office. This factual, credible material was utilized by Lehrer as well as every other one of the league’s 30 regional directors.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. April 10, 2002 FOR THE RECORD
Los Angeles Times Wednesday April 10, 2002 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 A2 Desk 2 inches; 67 words Type of Material: Correction
Wrong signature--A letter that appeared in Southern California Living on Sunday in response to a column by Al Martinez (“On a Mission to Foster Peace Among Angelenos”) bore the names of three writers. Only two people wrote the letter. They were Maxwell E. Greenberg and Burton S. Levinson, past national chairmen of the Anti-Defamation League. The third, Aaron Levinson, interim regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, was mistakenly identified as one of the authors.
We are also concerned that in his enthusiasm for his friend Lehrer, he chose to seriously impugn ADL national director Abraham Foxman, whom he has never even met, in the nastiest, crassest possible way.
MAXWELL E. GREENBERG
BURTON S. LEVINSON
Honorary National Chairman
AARON LEVINSON
Interim Regional Director
Anti-Defamation League