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ADL replaces Boston office chief

By · August 20, 2008

The Anti-Defamation League has replaced the head of its Boston office, who resigned following the Armenian genocide controversy.

Derek Shulman, a former political director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, will become ADL’s New England regional director in October, the Boston Globe reported.

Shulman replaces Andrew Tarsy, who was fired for challenging the organization’s refusal to describe the World War I massacres of Armenians as genocide.

Under intense pressure, the league reversed itself last August, describing the “consequences” of the massacres as “tantamount to genocide.”

Tarsy subsequently was rehired, but he resigned in December for unspecified reasons. Sources said it was the result of a rift with the league’s national director, Abraham Foxman.

The ADL still faces challenges in the Boston area, where more than a dozen communities have suspended their participation in a popular anti-bigotry program in protest of the league’s position on the genocide. Armenian activists still accuse the league of waffling on the genocide question and are upset that it did not support a congressional resolution recognizing the massacres as genocide.

Shulman told the Globe he sees a “tremendous opportunity” for progress on the issue but declined to offer specifics.

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