(RNS) — People used to joke that Abraham Foxman, the longtime national director of the Anti-Defamation League, was the “Jewish pope” for his frequent comments on any attack on Jews around the world.

A better description might be top cop.

During the late 20th century, Foxman — who died Sunday (May 10) at age 86 — was one of the most recognized American Jewish leaders for his regular pronouncements whenever he perceived antisemitism. As the national director of the ADL for almost three decades, he built up the organization into a formidable agency that tracked antisemitism and other forms of extremism.

His successor, Jonathan Greenblatt, described him as “an iconic Jewish leader who embraced the ideal of an America free from antisemitism and hate and who strongly believed that these scourges could be defeated if good people opposed it,” in a statement mourning his death. 

The American Jewish Committee in a statement said, “Abe brought moral clarity, courage, and unwavering conviction to generations of advocacy and leadership.”

To New Yorkers and others across the country, he might better be remembered for the punchy indignation with which he spoke.

“He was more quoted than every other Jewish leader put together because he was so good at giving people the quote they needed at that moment,” said Eric Alterman, a journalist, scholar of U.S. Jews and the author of “We Are Not One: A History of America’s Fight Over Israel.”

Foxman was known for admonishing and correcting those caught making anti-Jewish statements — whether it was actor Mel Gibson, whose 2004 movie, “The Passion of the Christ,” was viewed as depicting Jews as responsible for the death of Jesus; former CNN anchor Rick Sanchez; or the late civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. 

Alterman said Foxman led the ADL at a time when, at least publicly, it viewed stopping the defamation of the Jewish people as also fighting for the rights of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people. Under his leadership, it opened regional offices across the country, hired experts to monitor antisemitism, conducted diversity training for law enforcement and developed programs for schools. At his retirement in 2015, the ADL had 300 employees and a $60 million annual budget. 

But the ADL was never a left-leaning organization. In 2010, Foxman was sharply criticized by some for opposing building the Park51 Islamic center, also known as the Ground Zero Mosque, in lower Manhattan. Conservative media at the time warned against the mosque, located two blocks from the World Trade Center, and Foxman chimed in saying the mosque at this location would be “counterproductive to the healing process” after 9/11. 

Foxman also praised Daniel Pipes, a prominent anti-Muslim commentator, and donated to his Middle East Forum organization.

Emmaia Gelman, a scholar whose book, “The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State,” will publish next month, said the ADL under Foxman saw its role as propping up the U.S. and Israel as defenders of law and order. In 1993, in what became known as the spying scandal, the ADL was accused of conducting an illegal surveillance operation on thousands of civil rights groups critical of the U.S. or Israel. The group denied the allegations of illegality but accepted a court-ordered settlement.

“We are sort of primed to think of the ADL as surveilling white nationalists and the extremist right,” Gelman said. “But in fact, since the late ’60s, the ADL had been surveilling the left as well.”

In retirement, Foxman became critical of the new direction of the ADL. After Donald Trump held a campaign rally in Madison Square Garden two years ago, Foxman slammed it as a spectacle of antisemitism, racism, xenophobia and misogyny. He took particular aim at current CEO Greenblatt, who criticized a CNN guest but never mentioned Trump’s rally that happened around the same time.

“I’m reluctant to criticize my successor,” Foxman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But, hello, he went after this guy on CNN yesterday, and couldn’t mention Trump, it’s a little bizarre.” Foxman endorsed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Foxman also became more critical of Israel, especially the Netanyahu government’s judicial overhaul. In 2024, he described Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “liability.” 

Foxman was born in Poland in 1940, in what is now Belarus. At 15 months, Foxman’s parents entrusted him to his Polish Catholic nanny to avoid having to relocate to a Jewish ghetto. She baptized him to hide his Jewish identity and raised him as a Catholic. In 1946, he was reunited with his parents, first living in a displaced persons camp in Austria before immigrating to the United States in 1950.

He attended City College of New York and studied law at New York University, graduating in 1965. From there, he joined the ADL as an assistant director of legal affairs in 1965, and eventually became its director.

Foxman is survived by his wife, Golda, his children, Michelle and Ariel, and four grandchildren.