To the Editor:

While John Fonte accurately notes the broad apathy and even complicity of governments and non-governmental organizations in the ill-fated 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, he sweeps with too broad a brush and unfairly includes the leaders of two American nongovernmental organizations who had the courage to stand up and speak out against the tide of anti-Semitism ("The Shame of American Human Rights Activists at Durban I," The Corner, Sept. 22).

As one of the Jewish organizations deeply involved in the Durban process in the run-up to the conference, we at the Anti-Defamation League tried to mobilize NGO allies as voices of conscience against a forum for virulent anti-Semitism.  We wish more of our allies and coalition partners had understood earlier the pernicious nature of the campaign to cast the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in racial terms. 

Fonte does a disservice to the cause by failing to recognize those individuals who found ways to rise above the noise of the hateful rhetoric to say, "No."

A most notable example is the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, whose leader, Wade Henderson, distinguished himself by convening a press conference in Durban in 2001 at which some representatives of its diverse membership, including Michael Posner, then head of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (since renamed Human Rights First), explicitly condemned anti-Semitic sentiments expressed at the conference and the treatment of Jewish delegates to the conference as "repugnant and reprehensible."  Following the conference, Henderson reflected and wrote that the "anti-Semitic statements and activities, particularly in the NGO forum, were repugnant and should have been broadly condemned by the NGOs."

In the decade since, ADL has worked with the Leadership Conference and Human Rights First to emerge together from this bruising experience rededicated to collaborate in raising awareness about the dangers of anti-Semitism worldwide and the deceptive way it can be cloaked in criticism of Zionism or Israel. 

While some organizations continue to deny or dismiss the events of 2001 and what they signified, it's vital to also tell the story about groups like The Leadership Conference and Human Rights First, who have joined with us to write a very different chapter, one of collaborative advocacy to continue working together to fight hate and discrimination and to ensure that anti-racism efforts are not tainted by anti-Semitism.