ADL New England director resigns
Published: 12/05/2007

The New England regional director of the Anti-Defamation resigned.

Andrew Tarsy announced his resignation Tuesday in what the Boston Globe described as "the culmination of a months-long dispute with the national organization over its failure to fully acknowledge the Armenian genocide of 1915."

Tarsy would not elaborate on his departure, the Globe reported, except to say that it was "a professional judgment based on knowing when it's your time." His supporters said it was the result of his rift with the national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman, over the Armenian issue.

In August, Tarsy was fired after he publicly criticized the ADL's refusal to use the term genocide to describe the massacres of Armenians. In the face of protests from Jewish communal leaders in Boston and an Armenian-led campaign to have municipalities cut ties with the ADL, Tarsy was rehired and the organization released a statement saying the killings were "tantamount to genocide."

The ADL stood by its refusal to endorse a congressional resolution that would recognize the killings as a genocide. Last month, ADL leaders from Boston failed in their attempt to have the national organization take additional steps.

"At the end of the day, the vision of the New England leadership and Abe Foxman's leadership were simply not fully compatible," said Steve Grossman, a former member of the ADL's regional board, according to the Globe. Tarsy "realized that he would have to make too many compromises that he was not prepared to make. I think he leaves with his integrity intact, with his head held high."

Officials in the national ADL offfice reportedly declined comment.