Two board members of regional Anti-Defamation League resign

BOSTON --In a deepening rift, two board members of the local Anti-Defamation League have resigned in protest over the decision by the national organization to fire its New England regional director.

Andrew Tarsy was fired because he wanted the organization to recognize the Armenian genocide.

Stewart Cohen, former chairman of the Polaroid Corporation, and Boston City Council member Mike Ross tell the Boston Sunday Globe say they could no longer be part of an organization that doesn't recognize the Armenian genocide.

"I'm devastated by that and it's not something I can support," Ross said.

Tarsy, who was regional director for about two years, said the organization's stance is "morally indefensible."

The Anti-Defamation League is primarily known for combating anti-Semitism.

The ADL's national director Foxman and Glen Lewy, who is national chairman of the ADL, said in a written statement that the organization has acknowledged "the massacres of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire and called on Turkey to do more to confront its past and reconcile with Armenia."

The organization also must "protect the interests of the Jewish community in Turkey, work for Israel's safety and security, and combat extremism," the letter stated.

Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey, however, denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying that the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

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Information from The Boston Globe, http://www.boston.com/globe