Abe Foxman, center, speaks with Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Susan Rice, the US national security adviser, at an event in New York honoring the outgoing national director of the Anti-Defamation League, June 17, 2015. (JTA/ David Karp)
The former national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham (Abe) Foxman, has died at the age of 86.
Foxman, a lawyer and activist, served as the national director of the ADL between 1987 and 2015, and remained the national director emeritus until his passing.
Born on May 1, 1940, in what is now Belarus, Foxman spent the first years of his life in the care of his Polish Catholic nanny, having been entrusted to her by his parents in a bid to keep him safe during the Holocaust.
He was reunited with his parents in 1944, and the family immigrated to the US in 1950.
Abe Foxman (left) stands with his Polish Catholic Nanny, Bronislawa Kurpitaken, in Vilnius, Lithuania, September 1941. (Abe Foxman/AP)
After receiving his law degree from the New York University School of Law, Foxman climbed the ranks of the ADL, eventually being appointed director of the anti-hate organization in 1987.
He stepped down from the post in 2015, and was succeeded by Jonathan Greenblatt.
From 2016 until 2021, Foxman served as the vice chair of the board of trustees at New York’s Museum of Jewish Heritage.
He will be buried at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday (5 p.m. Israel time), and the funeral will be live-streamed.
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