To the Editor:

The regional chair of the Anti-Defamation League attacked both freedom of speech and the ZOA while utilizing serious inaccuracies (“Printing Attack on ADL Unjustified,” Aug. 11).

Firstly, she opposes the Exponent’s right to publish legitimate criticism by the ZOA of the ADL, writing that she “was puzzled and chagrined that the Exponent printed the national president of the ZOA’s” criticism. Secondly, she falsely claimed that the ZOA called her organization “weak.” 

We never used that word, and merely complained that the ADL wouldn’t state outright that Rep. Hank Johnson’s calling Jews “termites” is anti-Semitism. Finally, she absurdly called the ZOA’s appropriate criticism of the ADL’s actions “hate speech.” 

It’s painful to see a storied group like the ADL revert to name-calling, inaccuracies and attacks on free speech in order to defend themselves.

Morton A. Klein | president, Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)