ADL Reports Far Right and Left Wings in U.S. on the Decline

Extremist movements of the far right and left in America which manifest anti-Israel sentiment and “a quotient of anti-Semitism” are on the decline with respect to their public activities and ability to draw media attention, according to the results of a survey reported at the 62nd annual meeting of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel here.

A report presented by John L. Goldwater, chairman of the ADL’s fact-finding committee which monitors the activities of extremist groups at both ends of the political spectrum, found that the far left has failed to mobilize mass opposition to Israel in the U.S. as a substitute for the Vietnam war issue partly because “the public recognizes the fact that the Israeli situation and the one in South Vietnam are totally dissimilar.”

The report attributed the attempts by Marxist-Leninist groups to rally sentiment against Israel to the fact that these groups have lost much of their following with the end of the Vietnam war and the policy of detente. Rallies and demonstrations called during the past year for the expressed purpose of supporting Arab causes have been poorly attended, Goldwater reported. He warned, however, that the far left’s repeated denunciations of Israel as “racist” and “colonialist” are “contributing toward some dilution of support for the Jewish State among left-of-center elements, especially young people.”

BIRCH SOCIETY, LIBERTY LOBBY STILL ACTIVE

According to the report, the far right has suffered a decline “because the American political mainstream has become more conservative.” Goldwater said that the John Birch Society and the Liberty Lobby are the only top radical right organizations still active. The Birchers, with a membership of about 55,000 and an $8 million budget, sponsor a radio program carried by 87 stations. The Liberty Lobby, with a membership of 25,000 and a $1 million budget broadcasts daily on 165 stations.

But that is a far cry from the situation 10 years ago when radio “was saturated with radical right propaganda.” Goldwater said. He cited that fact as “dramatic evidence” of the movement’s decline. The survey found, however, that the Liberty Lobby, branded “an anti-Semitic organization” by the ADL, has stepped up its activities in the past year. The Washington-based group puts out a weekly publication, “National Spotlight,” which has 110,000 paid subscribers, he said.

BIAS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Another study made public at the ADL meeting found that racial prejudice directed against Jews and Blacks was “rampant” in American public schools. Benjamin R. Epstein, ADL director, said the findings “shatter widely held assumptions about the degree of prejudice among the younger generation and have special significance for reducing tensions in multi-cultural schools.”

The study, conducted in three communities within a 200-mile radius of New York City found a “surprisingly large” amount of teen-age hostility toward Jews and a strong correlation between prejudice and socioeconomic class. Nearly 5000 students in the 8th, 9th and 12th grades were surveyed in the communities which were given pseudonyms in the report to preserve their anonymity.

Young people with the least educational achievement and economic affluence were found to be the most anti-Semitic and racially bigoted, according to the study, and retained their bigotry after leaving school. An unaccounted for exception was that Black teenagers, although generally more deprived than white, revealed less prejudice against Jews.

The study found that the teenagers tended to attribute, traits they saw in their Jewish and Black classmates to the fact that they were Jewish or Black and to view even positive traits invidiously. The study found that a substantial majority in each of the three communities said that Jewish teenagers are intelligent, ambitious, and successful but those positive traits were given negative connotations by 60 percent of the students who claimed their Jewish classmates were conceited, selfish and bossy, Where non-Jewish, white students were disliked by their classmates they were assessed as individuals, but Jews were assessed as a religious group, the study reported.