Fox News host Glenn Beck apologized for comparing Reform Judaism to radical Islam.
In an apology on his radio program Feb. 24, Beck said he had made “one of the worst analogies of all time” on his Feb. 22 show, when he said that, like Islamic extremists, Reform rabbis place politics ahead of religion. He delivered a special apology to Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who was among the Jewish leaders who slammed Beck for his comments and demanded he apologize.
“To Abe and everybody else, if I offended you it was not my intent,” Beck said, noting that he often disagreed with Foxman but in this case the ADL chief was correct. “I see how I did that and I apologize for the action and the words. Enough said.”
The comments that got Beck in trouble Feb. 22 came in the context of a wider discussion about a recent open letter, signed almost exclusively by non-Orthodox rabbis, criticizing him for repeatedly comparing his ideological foes to Nazis. “There are the Orthodox rabbis and there are the Reform rabbis,” Beck said on the air. “Reformed [sic] rabbis are generally political in nature. It’s almost like radicalized Islam in a way, where it is just — radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics.”
Foxman welcomed the apology and issued a statement saying the matter had been put to rest.
Jewish Funds for Justice, a liberal group that has scuffled with Beck repeatedly — most recently by taking out full-page advertisements calling on Beck to be censured for his misuse of Nazi analogies — said the statement was “welcome but incomplete.” The organization said Beck’s comments were of a piece with his longstanding hostility to toward religious groups that pursue a social justice agenda, calling it a “systemic” problem. — jta