Watertown Town Council Delays Recommendation to MMA on ADL

Armenian Mirror-Spectator
December 7, 2007

By Daphne Abeel
Mirror-Spectator Staff

WATERTOWN, Mass. -
On November 27, the Watertown Town Council's agenda was to include a proclamation asking the Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) to rescind its endorsement for the No Place for Hate (NPFH) program sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). However, the council essentially tabled a vote on the measure, stating that it would be taken up at the next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, December 11.

According to Sharistan Melkonian, chairperson of the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Eastern Massachusetts, the MMA had sent a letter in September to the national office of the ADL asking the organization to reconsider its position on the acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide. When it was revealed that the ADL, which presents itself as a human rights organization, as a policy did not acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, intense pressure from the Armenian-American community, resulted in a statement in which ADL said that what had happened to the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the past century was ‘tantamount to Genocide.' Armenian-Americans rejected this statement as unacceptable.

Since then, thanks to the activism of the Armenian-American community, an increasing number of towns in Massachusetts have voted to sever their ties with the ADL-sponsored NPFH program.

The Watertown proclamation, drafted by Councilwoman Marilyn Devaney, (recently re-elected to the council in a close vote involving three recounts) stated `that the Town Council officially requests the MMA and its affiliate organizations to sever its sponsorship of, and relationship with, the ADL's No Place for Hate programs throughout the State of Massachusetts without further delay.'

Further, the proclamation read, `Be it further resolved that the MMA send notice to all 351 towns and cities that the MMA is no longer a sponsor and has no further relationship with the ADL and their program and that the MMA request that all communities sever ties with ADL programs.'

Said Devaney, who has been an active supporter of the Armenian community's efforts, `After the ADL national organization met in New York for their annual meeting on November 2, it took the position that it would `go no further' on the Armenian issue, that is that it would stand by its original statement that the events of 1915 were `tantamount to genocide.'

Devaney, who was at the time uncertain that she had been re-elected to the council, drafted her proclamation the Tuesday before Thanksgiving in order to meet the deadline for the agenda to be considered by the council the following week.

Devaney had also paid a visit to Geoffrey Beckwith, the executive director of the MMA, and told him that she believed `it should sever ties with the ADL. The MMA is supposed to advocate for the communities.' When the MMA met on November 13, said Devaney, `there was no mention that it would sever ties with the ADL and its programs. These are all delaying tactics.'

She added, `The 351 towns and cities in Massachusetts pay dues to the MMA and it's their mission to advocate for all these municipalities. ADL is giving money to schools in these communities. I feel we should cut ties with ADL entirely. The ADL is not going to change its position; it is not going to support the Genocide Resolution in Congress. I don't want to be part of an entity that pays dues to an organization that discriminates against a certain group of people. I think the MMA has a responsibility to withdraw its support.' Watertown Town Councilor Jonathan Hecht, who is also on the MMA board, voted to table the proclamation and Council President Clyde Younger declined to put it on the agenda of the November 17 meeting.

Although David Boyajian, a Newton resident who first made public the ADL's policy of not acknowledging the Armenian Genocide, attended the meeting, both Melkonian and Devaney said that few members of the Armenian community were present.

`People need to come to the December 11 meeting in order to get this resolution passed,' said Devaney. `We meet at 7 p.m. on the second floor of Town Hall, and we need all the support for this proclamation that we can get.' Most recently, several other towns, including Bedford, Westwood and Medford have suspended participation in the NPFH program. The Needham Human Rights Commission has sent a recommendation to its Town Council asking that Needham sever its ties. Needham's Town Council may vote on the recommendation as early as this week.

If Watertown were to vote the proclamation and the MMA were to accept it, it would establish a policy on the ADL and its NPFH program for the entire state.

Winchester Temple Casts Vote

In a related development, on November 15, the Board of Trustees of Temple Shir Tikvah in Winchester passed a resolution that reads in part, `Whereas as Jews who have been the victims of discrimination, persecution and harm due to our race, ethnicity and religion: it is hereby resolved that the members of Temple Shir Tikvah of Winchester, Massachusetts support the Armenian community in their efforts to seek recognition of the genocide committed against them.' Temple Shir Tikvah's Rabbi Rim Meirowitz, who said he spoke for himself and for Andrea Davis, president of the temple's Board of Trustees, said, `We had a lot of discussion of the ADL issue since the story broke in August. I spoke during the High Holidays about the power that one person could have to make change. In this case, it was David Boyajian, and I was impressed with what he was able to do.'

Meirowitz said that a number of his congregation had close relationships with Armenians and that there were at least one or two people of Armenian descent who attended the temple.

`There are interfaith marriages in our congregation. The ethnic Jewish community is changing and we are becoming part of a larger world. We tried to figure out what we could do. We're not a civic organization, and many people in the town think that No Place for Hate is a good program. For many reasons, we didn't want to take an adversarial position to it and to the ADL.'

Working with members of the congregation and particularly with David Goodman, Meirowitz said, `We came up with a statement that we think is helpful and important. David would like to get other synagogues and temples to do the same thing.'

Meirowitz quoted a story about a rabbi who is talking to a man, Jacob, in a public place. The rabbi claims to be Jacob's good friend. Someone asks him, ` How can you say you're a friend if you don't know what pains him? If you don't know what gives your neighbor pain, how can you say you are his friend? We know that lack of acknowledgment of the Genocide causes our Armenian brothers pain.'

Said Meirowitz, `How would Jews feel if the Holocaust were characterized as some sort of collateral damage or the result of a civil war. We would be incensed. Given our Jewish history, I think it's our obligation to say when genocide is happening or has happened.'