The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has withdrawn its support for a Jewish World War II veteran who last month was refused a Congressional Medal of Honor by the Army.
The ADL had worked on behalf of David Rubitsky, 72, for two years. In December, the Army said there was “incontestable evidence” that Rubitsky did not, as he claimed, kill 500 Japanese in the 1942 battle for New Guinea.
In a letter last week to Lt. Col. Terrence Adkins, chief of the Army’s Military Awards Branch, Abraham Foxman, national director of the ADL, rejected Rubitsky’s claim that a senior officer refused to write a recommendation because of anti-Semitism.
“The thoroughness with which you conducted your investigation into Mr. Rubitsky’s allegations is an admirable and welcome demonstration of a similar commitment by the Army,” said Foxman.
Foxman called Rubitsky’s anti-Semitism charge “unfounded,” adding, “We concur with the Army Award Branch’s dismissal of his claims.”
Foxman said the ADL was involved in Rubitsky’s case because it “treats any allegation of anti-Semitism as a serious matter necessitating a careful investigation.
“It is only when we are fully satisfied that such charges have been closely examined” and “convinced beyond any reasonable doubt that the charges are unfounded that our files are closed,” Foxman wrote.
B’nai B’rith International had joined the ADL in December in criticizing the Army’s decision. But Buzzy Gordon, spokesman for B’nai B’rith International, said his group’s position on the case had been primarily based on ADL findings.
The Jewish War Veterans of America was the one Jewish group that initially backed the Army’s decision.
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