News Brief

ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE CRITICIZED FOR ACTION IN SECURITY CASE

Criticism of the Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith for its handling of the security suspension of Jews employed at Fort Monmouth was voiced here in an editorial in the Jewish News, which is published for the Jewish Community Council of Essex County.

The editorial referred to recent public allegations that anti-Semitism was a factor in the suspensions of 45 employees at Fort Monmouth, 41 of whom are believed to be Jews. It quoted a speech by Arnold Forster, director of civil rights of the ADL, delivered at a dinner in Newark supposedly “off-the-record” but extensively quoted by the Newark Sunday News, in which Mr. Forster stated that the ADL had made a thorough investigation of anti-Semitic elements in the situation and had forwarded a report to Secretary of the Army Stevens.

“For the record, ” the editorial declared, “it should be stated that some months ago the New Jersey Jewish Community Relations Council composed of delegates of local Jewish communities and representatives of some national agencies, invited the ADL to sit down with other groups in order to review the Fort Monmouth matter and to determine if any action were indicated. It is regrettable that the ADL refused this invitation. Instead, subsequently, it initiated its own investigation, prepared a report and forwarded it to Secretary Stevens without consultation or foreknowledge on the part of other interested groups. Credit lines and testimonials are not of paramount importance. It’s far more important that in matters of this kind national organizations and local Jewish communities act together.”

Mr. Forster was quoted in the Newark press as charging that “rampant anti-Semitism” was behind the accusations and as having asserted that a report concerning a “person with a strategic position at the fort in respect to the charges” had been sent to Secretary Stevens.