Dornan’s ‘Little Jew’ Remark
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Your editorial with regard to Dornan (March 2), “Loose-Lipped Cannon,” was well-intentioned but wrong. You took Congressman Dornan to task for his “anti-Semitic” remarks on the floor of Congress regarding Radio Moscow correspondent Vladimir Posner.
I can assure you, were Congressman’s Dornan’s remarks uttered with anti-Semitic animus, we at the Anti-Defamation League would have been among the first to condemn them.
Clearly, if one views the congressman’s remarks in the context in which he uttered them, they were poorly chosen, but there was no bigoted intent behind them.
Unfortunately, The Times failed to report all of Dornan’s statement. His choice of the modifier’s “disloyal, betraying” were descriptive of Posner’s duplicity vis-a-vis Jews. As Dornan’s comment that Posner is “an affront to decency and to Jewish people around the world” makes clear, he was decrying Posner and not Posner’s former religious affiliation.
The presence of a Jewish member of Congress from the Democratic Party at Dornan’s side at his press conference in Washington is testimony to the fact that Dornan’s intent was not bigoted. His choice of certain modifiers was inelegant--for which he has apologized--but not anti-Semitic.
DAVID A. LEHRER
Los Angeles
Lehrer is regional director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
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