Anti-Defamation League Attacks Judith Regan

Posted on December 20, 2006

Somewhat surprisingly, the Anti-Defamation League has weighed in on the Judith Regan/HarperCollins battle, issuing a statement condemning Ms. Regan's allegedly anti-Semitic remarks to a HarperCollins attorney, that Ms. Regan denies ever having said.

"If Ms. Regan did make the charge that a Jewish cabal was conspiring against her, she clearly stepped over the line by employing the age-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews conspire against non-Jews," ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said. "She also gives credence to the conspiracy theory that Jews control the media. Whatever her dispute with HarperCollins, the Jewishness of her critics had absolutely no relevance to the matter at hand, which leads one to question why she resorted to raising the Jewish issue."

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[Attorney Bert] Fields, whose other clients have included Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, told the AP Tuesday that he "was really alarmed" by Foxman's remarks and found them "quite harmful to the Jewish cause. And I feel free to say that because I am Jewish." Fields acknowledged that Regan had used the word "cabal," but denied she said "Jewish cabal." Even if she had, he said, her comments would not be anti-Semitic. "I am quite stunned at what I think is a super thin-skinned response (by Foxman)," Fields said. "If a Jewish person is in a cabal, I don't think it implies that all Jews are conspiring against her. And to say that is silly."

Isn't it a bit early for the Anti-Defamation League to be opining in this matter? Of course, if she made the remarks, they should be condemned in the strongest terms. But there is no proof that Judith made anti-Semitic remarks -- she denies it and it's "he said, she said" in a termination lawsuit in which a lot of money is at stake. It looks like this case is already at DEFCON 3 for nastiness.

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