SubscribeCome back, Ronan. All is forgiven. Well, almost all.
Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, left, salutes celebrated Irish tenor Ronan Tynan after his rendition of “God Bless America” before the Anti-Defamation League’s annual meeting on October 29. (Photo by David Karp/JTA)
From the JTA report:
Irish tenor Ronan Tynan, a fixture at New York Yankees games, stole the show from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon at the ADL’s Annual Meeting Thursday [Oct. 29] when he apologized for making an anti-Jewish comment. At the dinner, Tynan received a standing ovation after delivering a dramatic rendition of “God Bless America” — which he regularly sings at Yankee Stadium during the sevent inning, until he was temporarily banned by the team.
Tynan was invited by ADL national president Abraham Foxman, who said he accepted Tynan’s public apology for the joke as sincere.
“We need to give a message to people that they can be forgiven if they own up to their bigotry,” Foxman said. “Otherwise, it’s counterproductive to our fight against racism.”
Who connected Tynan with the ADL? Meet Abraham Cohen, 37, from Teaneck, N.J. Cohen spoke exclusively to the JTA about how the shiduch came into being.
“When I heard what happened, I called Jeff Sulivan, who’s a mutual friend of mine and Ronan Tynan’s, and I said ‘what happened? This isn’t the guy! It isn’t him!’ Then Ronan called me and said ‘Abe, I may have said something but I didn’t mean it.’ Then it was in Sports Illustrated and other meida. It got worse and worse. I called Jeff again and I was livid. At this point Ronan was starting to lose business. I said, hey, I live in Teaneck, New Jersey,” where Foxman also lives, “and the ADL is someone who stands up for you.”
“It was a lesson well learnt,” Tynan, who was standing nearby, added. He said he hopes to sing at Yankee Stadium again in the future.
As he departed, the soft-spoken Irish singer said “lehitraot,” the Hebrew equivalent of see you later.
That may be all well and good, but according to the New York Post, the Yankees still have no plans to bring him back. (Maybe this was the out they were looking for?)
Hi Kaplan’s Corner,
Just e mailing u from Ireland to say thanks to the ADL for being so understanding and forgiving of Ronan Tynan’s comment. Of course the comment was insensitive and foolish but I don’t believe for one minute that Ronan Tynan is anti-semitic. His track record has shown him many times over to be a very compassionate and caring person without prejudice or malicious intent. This incident mainly shows that he is just human and fallible like the rest of us. I am not even trying to defend the man whom I don’t know personally, but I am annoyed that so many people who have all made similar or worse errors of judgement are so quick to condemn him. Who said “condemn the sin not the sinner”? We all without exception say hurtful things from time to time that we shouldn’t or don’t even mean. It is so refreshing that the ADL are both forgiving and capable of keeping things in honest perspective.
Brig
p,s, we irish do have strange sense of humour. we enjoy Paddy the Irishman jokes more than anyone!
I forgive him.