Anti-Defamation League satisfied with Fieger's apology for anti-religious comments

"We are satisfied that Mr. Fieger understands the implications of his past remarks and that they have no place in civil discourse, especially from someone in public life," said Abraham Foxman, the league's national director.

The league received a letter yesterday from Fieger expressing "deep regret for any pain or offense" that his past statements might have caused to Jews and other religious groups, and stating, "I wished I never had made them."

Last Wednesday, Foxman wrote a letter to Fieger in which he said, "We find your widely reported past comments likening Orthodox rabbis to Nazis and holding certain Christian beliefs and practices up to ridicule to be shockingly offensive, outrageous and unacceptable.

"We are also troubled that you have tried to explain them away rather than acknowledge that they were wrong and offensive."

Foxman was especially upset with a February 1996 letter Fieger sent to the Jewish Community Council in Bloomfield Hills after the Council of Orthodox Rabbis of Greater Detroit criticized Jack Kevorkian.

In the letter, Fieger wrote, "When an organization such as the orthodox rabbis take (sic) an extremist view which reflects a fundamental intolerance of individual freedoms, they are far closer to Nazis than they think."

Fieger once said that assisted suicide advocate Kevorkian - a Fieger legal client - needed a gun permit to protect himself from "nuts like Maida," referring to Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida, who has condemned Kevorkian's actions.

And he has said that many people in Jesus' time may have regarded him as a "goofball," another comment that has raised hackles.

Fieger campaign spokesperson June West said last week that Fieger's comments have simply been taken out of context.

But in a telephone conversation Thursday with Foxman, Fieger acknowledged that his comments to the rabbis had been inappropriate, even if he made them after he said the rabbis called him a murderer.

"For rabbis to call me a murderer is intolerable to me," Fieger told Foxman. But "I shouldn't have said that. And I apologize for saying that ... I should have turned the other cheek."

Fieger spent much of the last week speaking with religious leaders and explaining - and apologizing for - his remarks. On Friday, he was endorsed by the Ecumenical Ministers Alliance, a political action committee that represents over 100 Detroit pastors and churches.

On Thursday, Fieger won the endorsement of Michigan Clergy United, which has 150 member congregations around the state.

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