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ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE
Abe Foxman Finds It Pays
Not to Ignore Your Mail
Story and Photos by Tim Boxer
 ORMER
Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey once got a letter asking
him to invest in a new bookstore. He ignored the offer. But that didn’t deter Leonard Riggio, the determined
letter writer, from going on to create an enterprise known today as
Barnes & Noble.
In 1996 his company published a book that
seemed to contain anti-Semitic references. Abraham Foxman,
national director of the Anti-Defamation League, fired off a letter
to the company.
Riggio does not ignore letters. His reply was
three pages long, disagreeing with Foxman’s assessment.
Foxman sent another letter, this time conceding
that “maybe you are also right.”
Next day Riggio called. “I get many
letters,” he said. “Yours was the first that said maybe I am
also right. Let’s have lunch.”
That lunch led to a magnificent dinner which
ADL threw at the Waldorf-Astoria to honor Riggio with its
Americanism Award.
It seemed like every CEO in the book publishing
industry came to pay tribute to the chairman of a company that
operates 2,400 retail stores.
Among 1,200 powerhouse guests were a sprinkling
of writers, such as Cynthia Ozick, Kurt Vonnegut, Judy Blume,
David Halberstam and Peggy Noonan, plus former mayors David
Dinkins and Ed Koch, and Tony Bennett who sang for
his dinner.
Also present were Frank Sirianni and
wife Mary. He is vice president of R&M Richards. “I
went to Brooklyn Tech with Riggio,” he told me.
The black-tie event was a record breaker for
the ADL, having raised $2 million.
“Bubele, come here,” Foxman said as he
presented Riggio, a devout Catholic, with a painting from a
Jerusalem artist.
“Mom, did you hear this?” Riggio said. “I
was just bar mitzvahed.”
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