On a Mission to Foster Peace Among Angelenos

To those who have wondered whatever became of David Lehrer, I bring good news. He’s back.

I am speaking metaphorically here. Lehrer actually never left town, but was booted unceremoniously from his position as West Coast regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

When I say he’s back, it is in a somewhat different form, but with the same altruistic aim. He wants us all to get along.

The booting was done three months ago by national ADL director Abraham Foxman, or “Abominable Abe,” as he is known in certain Southern California circles.

Lehrer had been regional director of the Los Angeles-based unit for 16 years and one of its executives for 27. His knowledge of racist activities and organizations was phenomenal, and he didn’t hesitate to speak out against them.

In dismissing him, Foxman, whose office is in New York, offered the kind of vague language television executives employ in firing a person they fear, something about strengthening the unit over which the fired person held sway. Efforts to reach Foxman and ask him to be more specific about his motivations failed. He is well-protected by his staff. I believe the real reason for the dismissal was Foxman’s oversized ego and Lehrer’s willingness to challenge his policies. The truth is, the ADL unit here didn’t need strengthening.

To say that many of the 600,000 members of the L.A.-area Jewish community were stunned and angered by the firing is to belittle a rage that caused buildings to sway from Beverly Hills to Miami. Had Abominable Abe set foot in the city during the outpouring of fury, tarring and feathering might have made a notable comeback.

I’ve known Lehrer since the mid-1970s, when I was assigned to monitor the activities of racist organizations across the U.S., among them the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and all of their vile little brothers in malice.

He knew who their leaders were and how to find them. He knew of the rise of the sweet-talking “new” Klansman David Duke before anyone else, the danger of demented neo-Nazis like Chicago’s Frank Collin and the bellowing demagoguery of old-time, freewheeling white supremacists like San Diego’s Tom Metzger.

When the Internet became available, Lehrer was quick to warn of its use by hate groups and the influence these groups were exerting over the young, encouraging the racist violence of skinheads and others of a similar bent.

I relied on Lehrer’s knowledge as I crossed the country interviewing hatred’s leaders. I stopped at the ADL’s headquarters in New York and quickly discovered how disorganized their hate-tracking efforts were compared with the Lehrer-led L.A. unit.

I was as surprised as everyone else when Foxman fired Lehrer. His importance to multiethnic, racial and religious understanding cannot be overstated.

Ironically, among his differences with Foxman were his 1998 efforts to forge a more civilized debate between Muslims and Jews in Los Angeles.

Efforts like that should be celebrated, not challenged, and should never constitute a reason for punishment.

But Lehrer isn’t the kind of guy to cry into his pillow. He’s already busy creating a nonprofit institute geared toward making L.A. a better place to live. He was born and raised here, and at 53, he’s lost none of his love for the city and none of the fire that characterized his tenure with the ADL.

Only the approach is different. Rather than tracking white supremacists, he will attempt to fashion a common notion of citizenship in L.A. He calls it “a creative sense of community, an institute for common ground.”

“We’ll deal with issues of tolerance,” he said the other day over bagels and coffee. “Our board will cut across racial, ethnic and religious lines. Unlike New York, we don’t walk on the streets together. We’re too big, too spread out. We need to develop a common ground of a different kind.”

Chief among his aims, Lehrer said, is to enhance the idea of not being hesitant to visit any community in the city.

“We had people at the ADL fearful of even driving through East L.A. or South-Central. They thought they’d be carjacked at the next corner. The truth is, crime is down and now is the time to see the city, to go outside of one’s own comfort zone.”

Basically, Lehrer envisions a town composed of people who are not afraid of each other, with trust fostered through understanding. He aims to accomplish this through training programs, seminars, leadership workshops and use of the media, including radio and television commercials.

“We’ll take positions on issues and not be afraid to speak up,” he said, in what was probably a veiled reference to his dispute with Foxman, who apparently disliked any opposition to his policies.

“For most of the last century, the big push was to make tolerance the mantra of America. Now we have to sublimate particular concerns for the larger group.”

Bringing together diverse cultures into a single unit while respecting their traditions won’t be easy. L.A. has always resisted, as Lehrer puts it, “walking together.” He’ll face heated debates along the way and no small army of detractors, but if anyone can help us see beyond the cultural barriers that divide us, Lehrer can.

Without knowing it, old Abominable Abe, in feathering his own throne, may have done us all a huge favor.

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Al Martinez’s column appears Mondays and Thursdays. He is at al.martinez@latimes.com.