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The abrupt dismissal of the Anti-Defamation League's regional director here has illuminated the growing power struggles between East and West Coast Jewry, as the fulcrum of influence over American Jewish life shifts from its historical center in New York.
David Lehrer, the regional director who helped knit together Los Angeles' disparate communities during 27 years of wide-ranging human relations work, was dismissed from his post Dec. 21 by National Director Abraham Foxman in New York.
His ouster astonished and outraged Jewish community members here, who said Lehrer had never received a negative performance review, had tripled the league's fund-raising revenue and had forged broad community ties in initiating scores of programs to fight bigotry and stereotyping.
Foxman has not publicly commented on his actions, and an ADL spokesperson in New York said he was on vacation and unavailable for an interview last week. Other East Coast Jewish leaders could not be reached for comment.
Sources within the ADL and other observers of Jewish affairs, however, said about 40 members of the league's Los Angeles lay leadership overwhelmingly expressed support for Lehrer in a tense conference call last week with Glen Tobias, the ADL's national chairman. These observers said Tobias refused to explain Foxman's actions, calling it a personnel matter.
Lehrer, who has run the ADL's Pacific Southwest office for 16 years, said he has met with attorneys and is exploring legal options.
Among some Jews here, the brouhaha has reignited long-simmering resentment over the way national Jewish organizations in New York still treat Los Angeles as "a colony," as one put it. The same kind of tension--often between national headquarters and regional offices- -has surfaced in other American Jewish organizations in recent years.
Lehrer would say only that "my ouster is in part a reflection of the East-West divide in American Jewry. I hope the Los Angeles Jewish community continues to assert its independence and uniqueness."
Los Angeles is the nation's second-largest Jewish enclave, 600,000 people ranging from powerful Hollywood moguls to cutting- edge rabbis to a vibrant influx of immigrants from Iran, Russia and elsewhere.
A long-term demographic shift is reshaping America's Jewish population, pulling more Jews to the Sun Belt and West Coast. Yet the Northeast--still home to more than 40% of...