Abe Foxman, Former ADL Director, Dies at 86

Abraham H. "Abe" Foxman, the longtime national director of the Anti-Defamation League who became a leading voice against antisemitism and hate for nearly three decades, died Sunday at age 86.

The ADL confirmed the death but provided no details on the time, place or cause. Foxman, a Holocaust survivor born in 1940 to Polish Jewish parents in what is now Belarus, led the organization from 1987 until his retirement in 2015. He joined the ADL in 1965 as a staff lawyer after earning a law degree from New York University and spent his entire 50-year career there.

As a toddler during World War II, Foxman's parents placed him with a Polish Catholic nanny who baptized him and raised him in the church to hide his Jewish identity. He reunited with his parents in 1944, and the family immigrated to the United States in 1950 after time in a displaced persons camp in Austria.

Under Foxman's leadership, the ADL grew into one of the nation's most influential advocacy groups combating antisemitism, extremism and bias. The organization expanded its research on hate groups, including white supremacists; advocated for immigrant and gay rights; and developed educational programs on the Holocaust,...