Jewish leaders accept Beck's apology

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Jewish leaders said they accept the apology of Glenn Beck, of New York-based Fox News, for a comment equating Reform Judaism and radical Islam.

Beck apologized Thursday to the Reform Movement and Anti-Defamation League leaders for his statement two days earlier on his radio program, saying he had made "one of the worst analogies of all time," the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Sunday.

Beck's comment stemmed from an open letter to him on which almost all the signatories were non-Orthodox rabbis, in which they criticized him for repeatedly comparing those with whom he disagrees to Nazis.

"There are the Orthodox rabbis and there are the Reform rabbis. Reform rabbis are generally political in nature. It's almost like radicalized Islam in a way where it is just -- radicalized Islam is less about religion than it is about politics," Beck said Tuesday.

"I would welcome the opportunity to meet personally to introduce you more fully to the Reform Jewish Movement, to discuss the concerns about this incident and about the concerns that many of my colleagues (half of them Reform, half Orthodox, Conservative and Reconstructionist) expressed in the open letter to you regarding the repeated references to the Holocaust and Nazis, so that you may better understand the pain and confusion that language evokes," wrote Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in a letter to Beck.

Beck sent a special apology to Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League, who accepted the letter and said he considered the matter over.

Jewish Funds for Justice, a liberal group that calls for Beck's censure for his misuse of Nazi comparisons, said the apology was "welcome but incomplete."

"We reiterate our call on (Fox News chief) Rupert Murdoch to end Mr. Beck's tenure at Fox News…. Anything short of this reflects an unwillingness to take seriously the harm Mr. Beck causes to many in our community and beyond," the group said.